


Storm of Nails

by LisaMack



Category: Dark-Hunter Series - Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-06-01 20:19:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 50,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15151049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LisaMack/pseuds/LisaMack
Summary: Another Dark-Hunter meets a pretty girl... with a bit of a twist





	1. Epilogue

"Really?" I asked feeling completely dumbfounded.

As soon as the word left my mouth, I wanted to take it back. I wasn't so much the simple, one-word question that I regretted. No, it was the tone that I had used to ask it. When you're trying to sound grateful, you really shouldn't sound so utterly and completely surprised by someone's generosity no matter how out of character it might appear to be for them.

_Dammit! How do I apologize to her for that? Maybe…_

"Yes, really," she answered interrupting my thoughts. "It's yours for the taking. Well, not YOURS, but you catch my wood."

 _Wood?_ I questioned to myself before the meaning of her words came to me. "Oh! Yes, I do catch your drift. Thank you! Honestly, I can't thank you enough for this."

I turned to leave, but froze mid-pivot when she called out, "Wait!" She remained silent until I had turned all the way around to face her again before she continued, "Normally I demand some kind of trial to be completed and don't just let someone walk away with what belong to me."

"I know," I whispered as I stared at my feet. "If you…?"

"Which is why I can't just let you leave right now," she continued as if I hadn't spoken at all. My head shot up, but I don't think she saw the terrified look in my eyes. She seemed to have her words predetermined so the look on my face and turmoil in my heart didn't seem to matter to her. "which is why you will tell everyone that I tested you… And that it was… really, really hard."

She then gave me the details she wanted me to retell when people asked for them. I know she was going for 'dramatic', but I was feeling so antsy that I found it really hard to listen to her. But I finally forced myself to focus and soon I was finding it hard no to yawn. I minored in English Literature and I did a lot of creative writing in my spare time, so her plan lacked a lot of flair in my mind. But, something told me that time was of the essence right now, so I didn't argue with her. After all was said and done, I could take what she said and refine it into a better story. Most days people thought that she was completely insane, which helped me to eel even more confident that everyone would believe my storytelling even if she contradicted it.

After a few nods on my behalf and words of confirmation, she was ready to let me go

Wait, scratch that. She was ALMOST ready to let me go. Before I could turn to make my final retreat, she stopped me with her hands on my shoulders. She then leaned in and whispered into my ears. She laughed at the look on my face before she kissed my cheek and sent me on my way.

I was still feeling a bit dazed as I rushed through the house where I had been living to find the man I loved. He kept telling me that I should consider this place my home, but I still had a hard time reconciling that thought with my reality.

I had grown up in a townhouse with my parents on the outskirts of the French Quarter and I had commuted from there to Tulane University while I studied there. That made it hard for me to call a plantation in the Garden District my home. But I guess it sort of was now, right?

I stopped to shake that thought out of my head. That wasn't what was important right now. No, I had to find my warrior and stop him from becoming another statistic.

But where should I look for him? It was still light out, so I knew he wouldn't be outside. Heck, he might not even be awake yet. Now, that would work in my favor, so I doubted that I could ever be that lucky.

It didn't take me long to get through the front door before I sprinted towards his room. Not surprisingly, he wasn't there. And no, he wasn't in the Ensuite either.

I had already passed by the kitchen and that was a no go too, so, where was he? Where else could he be? I mean I know his house was big, like almost obnoxiously big from where I grew up, but where might he be tonight?

Without really thinking about it, I randomly ran to every room that I could think of until I heard a noise. At first blush it sounded simply like a grunt. That could easily have been misconstrued as him working out in his gym, honing his skills to kill soul sucking Daimons, but I knew better.

Well, at least my gut did. The butterflies in my stomach were fluttering so erratically that I was practically feeling nauseated. There had only been a few occasions where that had happened and each time it had been a significant turning point in my life, so I follow that sensation now.

I could hear him grunting and it thankfully got louder as I approached his training room. We had spent a lot of time in there together while he helped train me and honed my skills to help me prepare for the job I thought was the one I was destined to perform after I finished University.

Heck, it was in that room that we both first realized that we had feelings for each other. I had been adamant to ignore my attraction to him until the moment when I felt my lips press against his own.

I let my thoughts drift to my memories of that day. Thankfully they had been nothing but happy recollections, so I was practically beaming once I reached the training room door. I even came up with a fairly salacious comment that I was prepared to call out once I made it through the door.

"Baby" I called out along with his name as I opened the door.

My face fell and the rest of my words were silenced when I noticed that he wasn't alone. At first, I thought that he had invited a Squire over to spar, but the longer I watched the more unsure I became. Primarily, I noticed that he had his arms pinned behind his back. Although I know Squires spend a lifetime training to fight and kill Daimons, none of them had as many years of training and fighting under their belts as him. Second, I realized that he looked like he was genuinely struggling against his attacker and looked like he was in pain.

I called out his name again as a question as I took a step towards him and his attacker.

He immediately shook his head to keep me in my place. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he was gritting his teeth tightly to keep himself from crying out in pain. He had bee a warrior at a very young age during a very turbulent time and he had learned as a child not to let his foes knowhow badly he was hurt. I knew it wasn't just a point of pride to remain silent while in a fight, so I swallowed my questions out of respect to him.

I could feel tears starting to well up as I watched him continue to struggle behind an arm that had moved around his neck and started to strangle him. One of them had to tap out soon because this sparring had gone on long enough.

Forget respecting the warrior, someone had to an end to his insanity. "Stop this! You both have proved your point! Just stop it! Stop it now! Please?"

"Core…" he breathed out through hiss still clenched teeth.

The arm around his neck flexed and cut off his air supply completely. He wheezed out a horrific noise that got my feet moving again. I no soon took two steps before his attacker moved his face so that I could see it for the first time. He whispered something into his ear that caused his victim's eyes to widen with a wild look in them.

"Dad? Daddy!?" I called out in sheer desperation. "What are you doing?!"

A cruel smile spread across my father's face that coaxed my first tear to fall. He didn't seem to be moved by my emotional state. Knowing it was my father who was standing behind my warrior paralyzed me with fear. If I thought my love was a tough opponent, my father was an impossible foe.

"Dad! Please! Please! You're hurting him!"

The Dark Hunter finally stopped making noise, but that was mostly because my father had completely cut-off his ability to breathe. His eyes were still unnaturally wide, so I could easily see the color of them shift from the familiar black that was associated to him and his brethren in Artemis' service to blue.

He had told me that he didn't remember the original color of his eyes and I was the first person in more years than I could count to see his dark cerulean blue irises emerge just before the light in his eyes was completely extinguished.


	2. Chapter 1

“Finally!” My friend Faye called out as she jumped onto my back where I had been waiting for her at the front steps to our school. “We’re free!”

I placed a hand on the small of her back to steady her in the hopes that she wouldn’t knock both of us over. Normally that wouldn’t be a concern for me. I was taller than most of my friends, well my female friends, standing at five foot eleven and a half inches. Hey, that half made a lot of difference sometimes. But my height wasn’t the only reason that I didn’t fear being knocked over. As the daughter two Squires who worked alongside the Dark Hunters who worked in the goddess Artemis’ service to eradicate the existence of Daimons who sucked down human souls to prolong their lives, I hit the gym at least three times a week and had trained in everything from judo to kickboxing from a very young age.

Then again, all of my training hadn’t prepared me for my friend with spider monkey tendencies. She too is the daughter of Squires, but that’s where the similarities end. She was a tiny five foot three and only went to the gym if the guy she had a crush on was there. Don’t get me wrong, she was a scrappy fighter, but she preferred research over hand to hand combat. I could do research too, but I really liked getting my hands dirty.

She kept her ink black hair cut so short that I was surprised she hadn’t just shaved it off by now. I kept my light brown, wavy hair with bright blond highlights long, but I usually tied it back in a bun or braids most nights while I patrolled. Faye teased me that it would be easier if I just chopped it off, but I couldn’t do that. I was too much in love with how my hair could frame my slime figure in the right outfit. That was yet another difference between us. I was a bit of a girly girl who would wear a dress even when hunting Daimons just so that I would look cute doing it. Faye on the other hand was much more of a goth tomboy. Jeans, usually ripped, combat boots and a t-shirt were her uniform.

The only trait we shared were our fair completions and light-colored eyes. Mine were green like the grass on a hillside’s perfect pasture where as hers were an ice blue so light that they were almost grey. We both would use makeup to highlight our eyes and today her eye makeup made her eyes look like they were grey.

Faye jumped off my back and picked up her army green messenger bag saying, “I vote we head to Sanctuary to celebrate. Dev still owes me a couple of rounds after I kicked his ass so badly. Come on, what do you say?”

I settled my black leather backpack on my shoulders as I shrugged them. “Isn’t it a little premature to celebrate?”

“We just handed in our last papers, did we not?”

“We did, but…”

“Then we celebrate. Just think, no more wasting a perfectly good Friday night at the library or locking yourself away for a weekend to plow through to get a stupid paper done.”

“Right. That is great, but just because the papers are done doesn’t mean that we’ll get a good grade on them.”

“Oh please. Don’t make me laugh,” she scoffed with a very exaggerated eyeroll. “When was the last time you failed anything? Especially in Julian’s class?”

I frowned at the tone she used, when made her let out a loud laugh. “Don’t give me that look Core. Everyone knows that you’re his favorite.”

“FAYE!”

“What? You are! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Hell, I’d exploit the shit out of it if I were in…”

“SHHH!” I nearly hissed when the object of her ridicule came into view. I plastered a bright smile on my face and called out, “Hi, Dr. Alexander.”

“Ms. Blackwell, Ms. Christianson,” he replied with a soft smile as he made his way down the stairs towards us.

“Hey Julian,” Faye said, earning her a soft scowl from myself and our professor… well former professor “What? You used to babysit me with Grace when my parents had to go out of town. Plus, we’re done and aren’t your pupils anymore, so… Hey there Julian.” She ended with a playful punch to his shoulder.

He looked less than impressed, but he sounded less severe when he said, “Right, of course Faye. So? Are you ladies heading out somewhere to celebrate your new found freedom?”

“Trying to, but ye olde stick in the mud over there isn’t quite on board.”

“FAYE!”

Dr. Alexander chuckled at the look on my face. “Does that mean that you have other plans, Ms. Christianson?”

“No… well, yes… or well… maybe,” I stuttered out.

“Seriously?! Why have you been holding out on me, Core?”

“I’m not,” I countered a little too quickly to sound sincere. The look on both of their faces confirmed that truth, so I more insistently added, “I’m not. Mom had talked about going for a family dinner, but nothing was set in stone since Dad is still out of town and all.”

“Alright, then new plan… We’re going to Sanctuary.”

Julian chuckled again saying, “Looks like Faye has your plans set. What? She’s right You two are no longer my students and we’ve all known each other long enough to forgo formalities. Or was something else on your mind Cora-Lee?”

Faye moved so that she was standing beside Julia and asked, “Yeah, CORA-LEE, is there something you aren’t telling us? Oh! Wait! Do you have plans with your boyfriend?”

My eyes went wild and I must have looked frantic, but I didn’t verbally admonish her. I wanted to, but I couldn’t the words out. Hell, I couldn’t get the words to form in my mind. Faye must have noticed that my neck was turning red because she looked truly contrite and even mouthed an “I’m SO sorry”.

“Boyfriend? I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Is he a local?”

“N-no… No, sir. I’m not seeing anyone,” I sputtered out. “Faye is just trying to be funny and poke fun at how I’ve been patrolling for Daimons recently.”

“Patrolling? That can be pretty dangerous. You don’t go out on your own, do you?”

I shook my head and stared at my feet answering with a barely audible, “No, sir.”

“Oh? So, who do you…? Wait. I’ve heard something about this. Faenus? Is that who you patrol with?”

My head shot up as I openly gaped at the older man. _He’s heard something about me and Fin? When? From whom?_

“I take it from the look on our face that I’m right.” He stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder to force direct eye contact. “Make sure you watch your back while…”’

He trailed off at my involuntary eye roll. I didn’t really mean to do it, but I had been hearing this same crap from so many people that I couldn’t help it. Normally I tried to be completely and utterly respectful of my professors and anyone associated to my future job as a Squire, (being the son of Aphrodite put Dr. Julian Alexander in both categories) but after all of the ridicule I had taken over the last little while about this subject, I just couldn’t take it anymore.

I stepped out of his loose grip and did nothing to mask my annoyed tone when I said, “Now I get it, you’ve been talking to Kyrian. Look, you and the ‘great’ Punisher are friends and think you know everything about everyone who fought in your armies, but you don’t. Fin has been helping me practice my hand to hand combat and patrolling for Daimons was my idea. I figured there’s no better place to learn than in the field. He hates it, but tolerates me on his rounds so that I’m not doing it alone, okay?”

“Okay. But you and him? You aren’t…?”

I interrupted him with a low, frustrated growl. When I spoke, I kept my angry eyes locked on Faye’s embarrassed face. “No! We’re just friends. I’m going to be a Squire, so I know I can’t be romantically involved with a Hunter, alright? We train together, he tells me about what it was like before he died and the centuries since, but that’s it! Don’t get the wrong idea just because Faye thinks she’s funny and embellishes our relationship. We’re professional. We’re colleagues. Plus… I really don’t see myself dating a fossil anytime soon, so…”

This time it was Julian’s turn to go wide-eyed in disbelief and Faye looked utterly shocked. She had heard me banter with some of the Dark-Hunters and Were-Hunters, but never to someone in a position of authority. And NEVER without alcohol being involved. It felt good to know that I could surprise my best friend every once in a while. It felt even better to see such a look of disbelief on Julian’s face. He and Fin were contemporaries, so by calling my friend Fin a fossil, I was also alluding that Julian and Kyrian were as well.

Still smiling from my minor victory, I softened my expression then asked, “So Faye? Are we ready to go to Sanctuary?”

Faye hadn’t regained her ability to speak, so she just nodded and followed me as I moved towards the parking lot. Julian actually let out a soft chuckle at my petulance and just shook his head as he watched us walk away. I knew that when I woke up the next morning that I would regret my words, but right now I was happy to relish in my minor victory.

“CORE! I can’t believe you called our Professor a fossil!” Faye exclaimed as she settled into the passenger seat of my 2015 British Racing Green Chevrolet Yukon. Yeah, not exactly my first choice for transportation. I would have preferred a cut sports car, but again as a Squire in training I had to have more practical transportation. All of the windows, except for the windshield and front driver’s and passenger’s windows had a special tent on them that completely blocked out all of the sun’s rays so that I could transport a Dark-Hunter if he or she got caught somewhere in the daylight so that they would meet a fiery death. Since it would likely be my employer that I was saving, it seemed like a smart trade off to drive a less feminine or “sexy” vehicle.

“You mean former Professor,” I countered with much less bravado than I had used previously. “Shit… SHIT! He still has to grade my paper! SHIT!”

“Hey… Core… Relax. Julian might act like a jerk, but he really isn’t one at all. He’ll be objective when he grades your paper.”

“Are you sure?”

Faye reached over to grip my forearm tightly to get me to turn and look at her before she answered, “I am a million percent that he won’t be a douche while he grades your paper.”

“Holy hyperbole, Batman!”

“Yeah, well… You know what I mean.” She laughed softly and then cleared her throat loudly. She squeezed my arm again but wasn’t looking at me as she very somberly stated, “Cora, I’m really sorry for teasing you about Fin in front of Julian like that. I didn’t know it would be such an issue.”

I could feel the scowl and frown that made their homes on my face at her apology. It wasn’t that I didn’t think that she was sincere. I knew that she was… every… single… time she made that same apology, so it was starting to get a little old.

“Yeah, well… I told you not to joke about that stuff around anyone but Acheron. He’s the only one whole believes me when I say Fin and I are friends and colleagues and nothing more.”

“He’s…? But what about…?”

“He’s the ONLY one,” I reiterated through clenched teeth.

“Damn. Core, I knew Kyrian was giving you shit about him, but I didn’t know about your parents”

“Kyrian’s the reason my parents won’t get off my back. They refuse to listen to anything I have to say about Fin because their info came from the infallible Kyrian of Thrace. Why wouldn’t his highness know everything about a person he’s never had a conversation with ever in over two thousand years. Acheron has offered to talk to them and I think I might have to take him up on that offer.”

“Because of me, right?”

“Sort of… But it’s mostly because of them… err… Kyrian and Julian. Did you know that Fin was practically a virgin when he was murdered?”

“WHAT?! No way! How can that be true? He’s HOT!”

“Yeah, well look at Julian and Kyrian. Hell, Valerius isn’t exactly the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But, not only are they good looking, they had money… even back then. What would an orphan who only joined the army in the hopes of food and shelter have to offer in comparison to them?”

“Wow…” Faye breathed out as she slumped in her seat. “I never thought of it that way. Damn that fucking sucks.”

“Right? So, I’ve just been one of the guys with him because he doesn’t even know how to flirt with a girl.”

“One of the guys?” Faye questioned with an exaggerated eyebrow raise as she moved her head up and down to scrutinize my outfit. “Are you sure about that?”

The knee length grey skirt, emerald green tank top and black open cardigan I was wearing definitely weren’t an outfit that you would see most men wearing. I say most because this was New Orleans; anything can happen here, especially during Mardi Gras.

“Wardrobe aside, I’ve just been one of the guys. He loves baseball as much as I do, so we talk about that more than anything. He’s beyond skilled with a sword and he loves to tease me that I look like a toddler on roller-skates when I have one in my hands. But he’s really nice about it and make me want to get better at wielding a blade. Hell, after everything that’s been done to him and the shitty rumors that have been spread about him lately, he’s never lashed out. He’s never tried to retaliate and has talked me down more time than I can count. The only time you’ll hear him say anything hostile about anyone, it will be about his former crew mates who tied him to an anchor and drowned him in the sea.”

“That…? That’s how he died? It’s… That’s…”

“Disgusting and deplorable. They considered it a sacrifice to Poseidon in the hopes that he’d grant them calm waters on their voyage. Instead, Fin eliminated practically their entire Navy as his act of vengeance. My theory is that’s why Kyrian hates him so much even though, in my opinion, it was totally justified.”

“Wow…”

“I know, it’s crazy right? I mean, he should be a lunatic like Zarek, but instead he’s even more Zen than Acheron most of the time.”

“No, it’s not that…”

She trailed off again, so I asked, “What is it Faye?”

“It’s… Cora, you have to promise that you won’t get mad or like drive into oncoming traffic or anything if I say this, okay?”

“Faye, when you use nearly my full name and ask me not to be suicidal, maybe I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”

“You’re right. You really don’t want to hear it… which is why you know you HAVE to hear it.”

“I know, I know. But seriously? Should I pull over?”

My honest and earnest question made Faye check as she answered, “No, I know you can handle this. Core… The way you talk about Fin… I mean what you just said… It really does sound like you have a thing for him. I KNOW you two have kept everything plutonic, but your words make it sound like there’s more between you.”

“But there isn’t!” I protested.

“I know! I mean, I believe you, _mon amie_ , but I’m just saying that’s how it sounds. Maybe… Maybe you should cool it with being his one woman cheer squad for a while.”

“I’m not going to abandon him. He’s my friend.”

“I get that, but if the friendship is causing this much turmoil with your parents and everyone else, doesn’t that tell you something?”

“It tells me that a couple of prejudicial pricks have convinced my parents to believe their bullshit.”

“Core…”

“No Faye. I’m not going to back down about this at all. He’s had enough people turn their backs on him, I’m not going to add my name to that list.”

“Okay… okay. But I just had to say my piece.”

I reached over and squeezed her hand as I replied, “And I appreciate it. Seriously Faye, I’ve heard what you’ve said, and I’ll watch myself when I’m talking about Fin, so I don’t sound like a love-struck teenager and give people the wrong idea.”

“And I’ll have your back more when it come to your friendship with him.”

“Thanks. I’d really appreciate that.”

By that time, I had my truck parked on the street by the front entrance of Sanctuary. Surprisingly enough the font of the building wasn’t’ lined with motorcycles of every make and model known to ma, but it was still pretty early in the evening, so that made sense. Faye and I met at the nose of my truck and we pulled each other into a hug. We had never really fought, but I still hated when we didn’t totally see eye to eye on any topic.

As we stepped out of our embrace, we both let out a soft chuckle because she had obviously been thinking the same thing. That didn’t surprise me in the least. I mean, I didn’t call her my best friend for nothing.

And because we’re big dorks, we hooked our arms together as we crossed the street to make our way to the front of the club’s entrance. Both of our feet slowed down when we saw the bouncer turn someone away.

I gave Faye a questioning look and asked, “You don’t think they’re closed, do you?”

She shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure word have gotten to us if they had to shut down for any reason.”

“True. Weird… Hey Dev!” I called out to the blond, muscular man who was leaning against the brick wall beside the oversized black door.

He lifted his chin from his chest and gave us a smile that used to make me weak in the knees. (Once he became mated to Samia, I stopped being affected that way by his charm. I’m really not turned on by guys looking to cheat. Not that he could, even if he wanted to.) “Good evening ladies.”

“Hey Dev. You guys are opened, right?”

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

“Oh… well… you…” I nodded towards the path of the rejected patron.

Dev laughed. “Oh, him. Well, I can’t really call myself a bouncer if I let the rift raft in, right?”

“Right!” We both agreed with wide grins.

We then unhooked our arms and Faye took a step forward. Before she could reach the door, Dev took a step to the side to block her path.

“Uhh… Dev?”

He looked very stern with his arms crossed over his chest as he spoke. “Cherif knows your drinks are on my tab… But… Try not to empty all the kegs on my dime, okay?”

Faye laughed at the pouty look on his face. She patted his shoulder as she walked past him replying, “No promises, Dev.”

She then continued through the door. Before I followed her, I stopped beside Dev to say, “I’ll try my hardest to make sure she behaves.”

“Thanks Cora, I appreciate that.”

I opened the door and found Faye waiting for me at the other side. Although it seemed kind of odd that she hadn’t continued in to find us a table, I didn’t say anything. Maybe she already peaked inside and noticed that it was busy. When it was really busy, we would sometimes sit up on the second floor where only Were-Hunters, Dark-Hunters and Squires were permitted, so it made sense that she’d wait for me before heading up there.

Once I was at her side, Faye opened the door. Before we could walk through it, we were assaulted by an obnoxiously loud, “SURPRISE!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 2

“SURPRISE!”

My eyes moved from the restaurant filled with our friends, family and colleagues to Faye as I asked, “did you know about this?”

She shrugged and tried to look innocent. I let out a loud scoff as I took a step back to head to out the door to the street again. I hated being the center of attention and hadn’t had a birthday party since I turned ten. I never felt comfortable around people who were lavishing me with compliments just because it happened to be the anniversary of the day I was born. It felt even weirder getting presents for it. I hadn’t done anything worthy of praise when I was born, my mother did all the work, so she deserved the praise.

Every who knew me, knew this about me, so I was confused about this party. And why was it being held here? At least if we had it at our home we could have kept it more low key. Here at Sanctuary every person I had ever met could fit inside comfortably. Plus, as a Limani it was open to any and all Were-Hunters who were in need of a safe haven. That meant that there most likely would be a few faces I didn’t recognize at ‘my’ party tonight.

“Oh, come on, don’t sound so disappointed already,” Faye replied just before I heard, “If you keep scowling like that, you’ll get permanent frown lines, Young Lady!”

“MOM!” I exclaimed as I turned to hug her. “I can’t believe you did this.”

She squeezed her arms around my waist before she stepped out of my embrace to look up at me. (I was nearly half a foot taller than my mother and just under four inches taller than my father.) “Well, you shouldn’t be. We’re all so proud of you… both of you.” She then wrapped her arm around Faye’s neck and pulled her into a side hug. “Your parents send their best wishes and are so sorry they couldn’t make it back to be here for this.”

“That’s okay,” Faye replied with a large grin. “Mom said she’d host another party after our graduation ceremony. Now we have a bar to gauge how epic she has to make her party. Good work Mrs. Cee!”

Faye gave my mom a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before she hurried towards the bar to claim one of the pints of beer lined up along it as her own. She then easily got lost in the crowd and looked like she was having the time of her life.

Mom and I watched her for about a minute with smiles on our faces. Mom then turned to me and said, “I can never tell if she’s being sarcastic or not.”

I laughed and hugged my mom around then neck again. “She’s being completely earnest, Mom. This… this is pretty… too much. I can not believe you did all of this.”

“Stop saying that. It isn’t too much when I’m celebrating you, Sweetheart. I’m so proud of you and all of your accomplishments.”

“Mom… stop. You’re going to make me blush!”

“Well, then you should have one of these so that you can blame your pink cheeks on it.”

I took the martini glass from her and jokingly asked, “They have martini glasses here?”

Mom laughed, but before she could answer we hear someone say, “Some of us fossils like to enjoy something other than beer from time to time.”

 I nearly choked on the liquid in my mouth before I croaked out, “Dr. Alexander. I… I didn’t know you were here.”

“We just arrived,” his stunningly beautiful wife replied. “Eve, I’m so sorry we’re late. My last appointment took longer than I had anticipated.”

“Oh, Grace! There’s no need to apologize. We’re still waiting on a few other guest and as you can see we’ve already surprised my beautiful daughter, our honored guest.”

“I can see that. Congratulations on finishing your degree, Cora.”

“Thanks, Dr. Alexander… err… Grace,” I replied as my blush returned with a vengeance.

Mom then took Grace by the hand and pulled her towards the long line of tables cover with food saying, “You must be famished, Grace. Let’s get you a plate.”

I nearly called out to my mom but stopped when my eyes landed on my Professor. My already pink cheeks turned red and felt like they were on their way of turner a few shades darker. “Dr. Alex… err Julian...”

“I was just teasing you Cora,” he interrupted with an easy smile. “Look, I talked with Grace about our conversation this afternoon and she had some… enlightening insights. Now, I’m not going to apologize for being concerned about your well-being. We all have to look out for each other.”

I opened my mouth to interrupt him, but Julian held his hand up to keep me quiet “But I will apologize for how I spoke to you. I didn’t intend to make it sound like I didn’t trust your training or your judgment. I know you are a very intelligent woman, so I’ll try to give you the trust that you’ve earned… no matter how difficult it will be for me to do at times.”

“Thank you,” I whispered to keep from letting him hear the emotions his words evoked. “But Julian, I… I honestly didn’t mean to insult you by calling you…”

“Cora, yes you did. And I deserved it for not listening to you. But let’s forget about that. Tonight, is about celebrating your accomplishments and your hard work, not ancient history, okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed with a wide grin.

Julian then lifted his glass to me, so I tapped the edge of my glass against his. I then watched him take a sip from his glass which caused him to raise an eyebrow in my direction. That helped to startle me out of my thoughts and finish the liquid in my glass.

“Cora, just so you know, I’ll miss having you in my class. I sincerely hoe you’ll reconsider taking graduate courses.”

“Oh… I…” I fell silent as I watched Julian take a plateful of food from Grace. I had never considered furthering my education beyond a B.A. or B.S. because I figured I’d be sent off to Squire for my own Dark-Hunter. But last I heard, no one was in the need of a Squire and there any new Hunters who were…

“What the…?” I shrieked as my feet left the ground.

The arms around my mid-section tightened as their owner laughed against my back. No long after that I went completely limp in his arms. I recognized his scent, well his cologne, so I knew resistance was futile. But more important than that, he was a Were-Hunter so that meant that I had no hope in Olympus of out muscling him.

“Let me down,” I finally stated quietly. “Etienne. _Va te faire foutre._ Let me go!”

Contrary to my hope, my telling him off in his parents’ native tongue seemed to just amuse him even more. Plus, I’m sure that my hanging limply in his arms didn’t help my cause. But, what else could I do? When I felt him walking us away from the crowd, I finally started to try to fight back. That just made him laugh harder, even after I landed what I had hoped would be a forceful kick to one of the more vulnerable spots on his lower body.

“Hey now Cora! You said that we couldn’t hook up because you had to concentrate on school. Well… this party is telling everyone that you’re done with school, so…”

“So, you should really let her go, Etienne. Now. I won’t ask again.”

He complied with the demand of the new comer, but before he left me alone he whispered into my ear, “We should find each other later.”

“In your dreams,” I breathed out to myself because he had already disappeared into the crowd. I then felt a hand land on my shoulder, so I turned around to than my savior.

“Are you alright, Cora? Did he hurt you? Because if he did, I’ll…”

“No, no, I’m fine.” That earned me an unimpressed look, so I quickly added, “Really Remi, I’m fine. Plus, I don’t want to get you into trouble with Parker or anything.”

He let out a full bellied laugh as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders to lead me back towards the party saying, “Trust me, Parker would have no issue with me kicking Etienne’s ass on your behalf.”

“What? Really?”

“Really.” This time it was my turn to give him a dubious look. “Alright, so she would want to skin my hide, but after I explained that it was all for your, she’d probably be okay with it. Maybe… Alright, you have a point, I should make a plate of food and take it to her before she notices I’m missing.”

I was laughing to hard to hear the rest of his ramble, but it had tapered off in time to hear, “Remi? You are badgering the guest of honor, are you?”

Remi’s face hardened for a brief moment. I’m not even sure his wife caught it, but his facial expression softened just as quickly. I hugged his waist with his arm still around my shoulders as I answered, “Actually, he just saved me from yet another of Etienne’s unwanted advances.”

“Again?” The now dark blond ex-Squire shook her head with a hard scowl. (I personally missed her ebony colored hair with indigo streaks, but she seemed to be enjoying going _au naturel_ , so I forced myself to get used to it too.) “Do I need to…?”

“NO!” Both Remi and I shouted at the same time.

He and I shared a look before I rushed to his mate’s side. Thankfully she was laughing at our enthusiastic response, so I used it to my advantage. Once at her side, I leaned down to his her now very large pregnant belly. Since she was having triplets, she was the first woman I had met who appeared to be offended if you didn’t acknowledge her growing babies before you started a conversation with her.

“It isn’t that I wouldn’t love to watch you lay the smack down or anything Parker, but Remi’s threat seems to have done the trick,” I explained with a brilliant smile on my face.

“Really? You threatened him?”

At first, I thought Parker was going to get mad at Remi, but instead she held her arms out to offer him hug. He and I shared a quick, surprised look before he moved into her embrace. She hugged him fiercely and then she tucked herself into his side with her head under his chin. Remi’s left arm fell away from her shoulders to her waist and his hand found its home on her large, very pregnant belly.

I’m not going to lie, these two had quickly become my favorite couple to watch in our community. I used to be afraid of even being in the same room as the usually surly bear, but Parker changed that. She brought out the best in Remi and helped to keep him in check so that he didn’t become unbearably scary. No pun intended.

But since she started showing, all Parker had to do was enter the room and Remi’s demeanor changed completely. You would have to be blind not to see the smile spread across his face as his eyes followed Parker’s every movement until it was too much for him and he had to move to wrap her in his arms. Seriously, they were BEYOND cute.

“Plus, you should be focusing on your sons and daughter right now,” I added with a dreamy smile.

“Our what?” They questioned in unison.

The way that their eyes bugged out told me I had done it again. Lately, I had started to come into some psychic abilities, but they were so new that I was still trying to get used to them. Like filtering the information before I blurted something out. Information such as the genders of a friend’s unborn triplets.

“No, seriously,” Parker repeated. “What did you say?”

“Nothing. Just… You need to focus on your little ones.”

“That isn’t what you said before, Cora. Please? Tell us what you said again.” Parker tilted her head down and blinked up at me, “One Squire to another?”

I was biting my lip so hard that I tasted blood to keep from laughing at her antics. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Oh… And there’s my mom calling me.”

I hurried past them before they could try to stop me as I sprinted to my mother’s side. She chuckled and massed me a plateful of more food than I could ever hope to eat and asked, “Dare I ask what that look on you face means?”

“Oh, Mom,” I sighed out and leaned down to place my head on her shoulder. “I’m the worst friend EVER.”

“ _Mon bijoux,_ what makes you say that?” She asked as she rested her head against mine.

“It’s these stupid abilities. I still… I suck at them. I… I slipped up and told Parker and Remi… I told them…”

“Shh… Sweetheart, I think I understand. But, _mon bijoux,_ look at them. I know you didn’t mean to tell them whatever it was, but I’m more than certain that you help ease Parker’s mind, if not our Remi’s as well.”

I looked over at the happy couple. Parker was leaning up to whisper into Remi’s ear. He laughed at whatever she said. HOLY SHIT! He actually laughed. I never thought I’d witness such a feat. Parker then grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the kitchen, en route to Peltier house.

“Alright Mom, you might have a point”

“I DO have a point. _Viens-ici, mon bijoux_.” Mom pulled me into another hug once I was within arm’s rec. “Enjoy the party, Cora. You’ve worked so hard, you deserve this celebration. Stop worrying and start partying, alright?”

“Alright. Alright. I’ll try, Mom.” She stood up and gave me a stern look at my reply. “Fine! No trying I AM having a good time.”

“That’s better.”

She gave me another kiss on the cheek before she turned and disappeared into the crowd. I wanted to follow her example, but for some reason I couldn’t just let loose. There was nothing wrong with the party, I mean Mom and Faye and everyone else were mingling and having fun, but that just wasn’t me on a good day and especially not tonight. However, unlike in the past, I was actually trying to let loose this time.

As I moved towards a booth to sit down and eat my food, I felt my phone start to vibrate. After I pulled it out of my skirt’s pocket, I noticed the name on my call display and squealed out a quiet noise of excitement. Okay, it really wasn’t all that quiet, but Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” started to play, so that downed out anything that I would try to say.

That, of course, wouldn’t work to speak to anyone on my phone, so I abandoned my plate of food. I didn’t spare a glance over my shoulder as I rushed to the exit to the alley. That also meant that I didn’t notice if anyone realized what I was doing. However, had I been thinking straight, I would have realized that Acheron was entering the pub and he, of any being I had known, would get why I seemed to be running away.

“Daddy? How are you?” I cried out into the phone once I as alone in the alley.

I’m feeling really sorry that I couldn’t be there tonight, _mon bijoux_.”

“Don’t worry about that, Dad. I know all about why you have to be away, so don’t apologize about it Just tell me about everything that you’ve been doing lately.”

I found a seat on a couple of discarded wooden pallets while my dad told me about everything he was working on away from home. The job was tougher than he had anticipated it would be, which meant it was taking longer. But that was okay… Well, not really, but at least it let me try to help my Dad and put everything I had learned into practice, even if it was just remotely.

What I hadn’t foreseen was that while I chatted with my dad, something was watching me. The alley was a great place for shadows and every manner of being could and would relish in using them to conceal their presence.

Normally I would have investigated the feeling of the hairs raising on the bac of my neck, but tonight I ignored it. I could give you a thousand excuses, but at the end of the day I knew they were lies. I had Dad’s undivided attention, so I was giving him the same. Never mind the eyes that tracked my every move and remained laser focused on myself while I was talking in complete ignorance of being watched.

 

 

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 3

“Wow Daddy, I had no idea that everything had gotten so bad there,” I replied into my phone. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Nothing more than you enjoying your party tonight.”

“Dad!”

“What? You and I seem to be able to talk quite easily right now.’

“Oh… that…” I replied trying to sound nonchalant. “Well… When I saw your name on my call display, I ran into the alley and…”

“CORA!” Dad interrupted with a surprised shout.

I could tell he wanted to continue to reprimand me, but I stopped that by saying, “I’m safe, Dad. Since Savitar re-designated Sanctuary, no one has tried messing with the Peltiers. Plus, Amy is matriarch now and I for one never want to see her when she’s truly and thoroughly pissed off, especially with the little ones nearly here.”

Dad chuckled then replied, “You’re right, I don’t want to see that either. And speaking of…”

“I’ll head back in soon,” I answered to his unasked question. “But, I’ve really missed talking with you, so you can’t blame me for prolonging this moment because I won’t apologize for it.”

“Nor would I expect you to, _mon bijoux_. But as much as I adore talking with you…”

 “You have to get back to work” I finished for him. “Don’t forget to let me know if I can help with anything. I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, _mon petit bijoux._ ” I could hear him chuckle softly to himself before he continued, “I wish you could help me fix this all right now, but this isn’t your fight, Snickerdoodle.”

“Not yet,” I gently corrected.

“Right, not yet. And I hope it never will be. Now, enough about that. Pass on my love to your mother and have fun tonight.”

“Thanks Daddy, I will. I love you…”

“To the moon and back,” he finished as part of our usual goodbye to each other when one of us was away.

After I hung up the phone, I stood up and slipped it into my shirt pocket again. I had intended on going back into the party right away, but my feet had a different plan.  They didn’t move at all. Instead, they must have been conspiring with my knees because the next thing I knew I was sitting on the pile of pallets again with my head in my hands.

I should be excited because I was finished school and my mom had planned an amazing party, so why wasn’t I happy? Why couldn’t I let loose and just enjoy it? Why did I feel like I was supposed to somewhere and someone else right now?

“You know… A dark alley isn’t the safest place for a woman to find herself all alone,” a low, sinister sounding voice cautioned from behind me.

As discretely as I possibly could, I slipped a lipstick sized tube from the pocket of my skirt. It was actually a collapsible baton with a sharp tip that I could use to fight Daimons and I could carry it without being too obvious.

I held my breath so that I could try to hear my stalker’s movements better. He was good, really good which meant he was probably old. I was sure I was right because I could barely hear him move even though I could feel him closing in on me. At least I was fairly certain that’s what he was doing. I mean, that’s the only thing that made sense, right?

More out of gut instinct (and fear) than any training or conscious thought, I jumped to my feet and turned to fact the space behind me. Not surprisingly, there was nothing there. I kept my weapon pressed into the side of my leg to conceal it with the folds of my skirt while I tried to regain my bearings.

I nearly went limp in my spot, but suddenly my left elbow flew up and connected with the sound of a meaty crunch. Before I could revel in that victory, I pivoted on my heel and raised my blade over my head with the intent of thrusting it through their chest.

He didn’t notice me right away because he seemed to be tending to his broken nose. Once I saw his face, I immediately dropped my blade and stumbled back a couple of steps when I realized who it was that was standing in front of me.

“Oh gods,” I gasped out. “Fin? FIN! I… I…”

He manipulated his nose from side to side before he let his hands fall away from his face. When I saw the blood flowing around his mouth from his nose likesome sort of macabre mustache, I stumbled back a few more steps mumbling, “Fin, I… I didn’t… if…”

He caught my arm as I tripped over my own feet and helped me to stand upright. When my eyes met his, he was smiling as he said, “Wow, Cora, you are getting really good at your hand to hand combat skills. That elbow to the nose was a great move to incapacitate a Daimon, so you could use this… this… spike on them.”

He held up my blade for me to take it from him. After I did, I slowly collapsed it so that it was the size of a lipstick tube again.

“I didn’t… I mean I hadn’t planned…” I stopped and shook my head so that I could continue more clearly. “I just lashed out at you with no forethought of a battle plan. It was just a lucky hit.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Fin countered with a calm smile. He motioned for me to sit down and found a seat beside me before he continued, “Luck had nothing to do with it. You followed your instincts and won the fight. I told you that you had the spirit of a true warrior inside you and now I know that I was right.”

“Well the MIGHT be true, but,” I paused to watch him clean most of the blood off his face with his sleeve. “But, either way, I’m really sorry I hurt you. Is…? Is it bad?”

“Nah. It’s nothing that won’t heal while I sleep. So, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, you can, especially after what I did to you.”

He patted my forearm saying, “Cora, you don’t have to apologize for defending yourself. No one asks for forgiveness on the battlefield, so you don’t need to do it now, understood?”

“Yes,” I replied quietly towards the hands folded in my lap. I heard him let out a sigh, which told me that I had said the right thing, but he didn’t believe me anymore than I was convinced of it. I then sat up straighter and turned my head to give him a cheeky grin as I teasingly said, “If that was your question Fin, you really didn’t have to soften the blow by asking if you could ask me something.”

That comment earned me a confused scowl, but after a moment of thought he got my joke. He started to chuckle as he ran his fingers through his hair. He kept the sides of his head shaved and the hair on top longer than a true buzz cut. He out of all the Dark-Hunters I knew looked and sounded like he belonged in this decade. From what Acheron has told me, Fin was one of the Hunters who seemed to have easily adapted to the changes in ‘civilization’ over the centuries I always thought that was because Fin had said that he never really felt like he fit in with his contemporaries, so it made sense to me that he would try to fit in wherever he found himself eve if he didn’t feel completely comfortable.

“No, _Cher,_ that wasn’t my question. What…? What’s wrong?”

I laughed softly then answered, “Oh gods, I’m sorry. That was rude of me to laugh, but… well… your Cajun accent sure has improved.”

“Really?”

“Really. Okay, now back on topic before I derail you again…What DID you want to ask me?”

“What? Oh… Oh, right…” He shook his head and let out a beautiful laugh. He even opened his mouth wide enough that I could see his fangs. I love the fact that he felt comfortable enough with me not to feel self-conscious about showing them. “What I really wanted to know was… What are you doing out here in the alley all by yourself when all of your friends and family are partying inside?”

“Oh…that…” I could feel my cheeks heat up, but I tried my best to ignore my blush as I answered, “My dad called and…”

Fin gave me a dubious, sideways look and interrupted me with an equally disbelieving tone, “ _Cher…_ ”

“No, really! Ash was coming in, so the music got even louder than usual, and I wanted to be able to hear him. You see his…”

“I know about the Blood Hunt.”

“Oh…Okay… You do?” I held my hand up to stop him from continuing and said, “Not important. But, if you know about the hunt, then you must know how difficult it’s been for him, so I wanted to see if I could help in anyway.”

“Alright, that makes sense. But, that doesn’t explain why you’re still out here. I mean, by the time I first saw you, your phone call was finished. So, _ma petite amie,_ what’s keeping you out here?”

“HEY! I’m only an inch or two shorter than you, so who are you calling little?”

Fin reached out to tuck my hair behind my ear so that he could see my face better. “Small doesn’t always mean in stature, my friend. And no more avoiding the question. Why are you out here in a cold, dank alley and not inside with all of your friends and family?”

I wanted to tease him that I had already answered one of his questions, but I knew that I couldn’t. He had been gracious enough to answer all of my questions about Ancient Greece and Rome from when he was alive, even though it made him uncomfortable at times. I had tried to give him more than one ‘out’, but he wouldn’t take any of them. He insisted that he had offered to so, so help he would, no matter what. If I were being completely honest, I would admit that made me beyond happy. First, it really helped me with my paper in Julian’s class, and second, that was the first night Fin had called me his friend. I already knew he hadn’t used that for anyone while he was living, so it felt like I was special. Later that night, he told me I was the first person EVER that he had trusted enough to call them such a thing. That made me feel blessed and I wanted to everything in my power to prove to him that I still deserved to wear that title.

With that thought in mind, I pulled my hair back and away from my face and turned to face him. As I spoke, I let to go of my hair so that it fell down my back, “The truth is that I hate parties, especially when I’m the one who’s supposed to be the center of attention. I know it makes me weird, but there it is.”

“You really don’t…?” Fin held his hands up in surrender when he saw mw glaring at him. “I’m sorry, but in all the centuries of my life as a Dark-Hunter, I’ve never met someone who hated people celebrating their victories. Orgies used to break out during celebrations after wars back when I was your age. I didn’t mean to imply anything like that with a simple look. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be,” I countered with a dejected sigh. “I know this isn’t how most people react…” I stood up and made my way back to the bar. I was going to leave it at that, but I couldn’t in good conscience leave without calling out one more thing with my hand on the knob to the door I said, “But I think the real reason is that every time I’m forced to pretend I’m happy at one of my mom’s parties, I’m reminded how out of place I feel here… How much I feel like I’m meant to be somewhere…. Someone else…”

“Cora…?”

Fin called out to me a couple of times, but I didn’t stop moving. I had to put on my game face back on and I could do that if I as crying. It sounds stupid, but I knew that if I stopped to hear his questions or kind words that I would inevitably end up in tears. As a wise man, okay Acheron, tole me, you would know that you could trust someone if you could be completely vulnerable with them. Fin was the only person who had ever seen me breakdown under my own insecurities, so I couldn’t let him coax that out of me right now.

“There you are, _mon bijoux_! Where did you disappear to?” My mom called out as she took my hand and pulled me towards the bar. She started to giggle as she passed me another martini. “Oh! Did you hear that rhyme? I didn’t even try to do that!”

“I heard it, Mom,” I replied with a forced, but truly trying for sincere, smile. “You always wax poetic when you’re really happy.”

“Of course, I do. Especially with you.” She hugged me and spilled some of her drink down my back. “And you make me the happiest person on the planet my beautiful, beautiful baby girl.”

I hugged her back and tried to hide my tears in my voice as I replied, “Mom… Mom… Try to save some of this for Faye’s party or you might run out of material.”

“Never, _mon bijoux!_ ” Mom exclaimed as she pushed out of my arms. “You… you are the reason that I feel blessed by the gods, every day.”

“Mom,” I quietly whined.

“Don’t. You know it’s true. I love you…”

She stopped there and raised an eyebrow. I felt my cheeks heat up as I meekly replied, “To the moon and back.”

“That’s right. Now, drink, eat… Have fun!” She kissed my cheek then let out a quiet squeal. “Ooh! Look who just walked in!”

“Mom! Should I call Dad?”

“Oh, don’t look so scandalized! Your dad knows I like to window shop.”

She started away from me and paused to wink and cheekily add, “Because he knows I’m not looking to trade in for a lesser model.”

I chuckled and raised my glass. “ _Touch_ _é, Maman, touché._ ”

She started towards the door but stopped when she noticed I wasn’t following. “You aren’t coming to greet him with me?”

Mom had lost all of the humor from her tone, so I made sure to do the same when I answered, “No, Ma’am. I haven’t eaten since I handed in my paper, so I thought I’d hit the buffet.”

For a couple of seconds, Mom narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe what I had just said. I’m really not sure if she did or not because she just gave me a beautifully earnest smile as she proclaimed, “That’s my girl.”

Once she turned back towards the door, I hurried over to the tables that had been lined up for our banquet. I didn’t need her or anyone else to see how my heart skipped a beat when I noticed him walking though the door. And I really didn’t need…

“Wow! Cody’s her?” Faye’s voice quietly exclaimed bringing me out of my thoughts. “I didn’t think he came to any of the Dark-Hunter shindigs. Or wait… Is it hoedowns? He calls them hoedowns, right?”

I turned my eyes up to watch him greet my mother. After he hugged her, he replaced his signature Stetson back on his head. Today it was his dark brown leather one that was secretly my favorite. I felt my heart skip that beat I knew it would when I saw him slip off his leather jacket that matched the color o his hat to reveal his from fitting dark denim button down shirt tucked into his skin-tight jeans. I didn’t need to move my eyes to know those jeans were tucked into a sexy… err… manly pair of cowboy boots.

“He doesn’t call them hoedowns, Faye. He isn’t playing a caricature of a cowboy, he really is from Wyatt Earp’s era.”

“I know he is.” Faye placed her hand on my arm holding my plate to get my attention. “Core, I really… This isn’t like a Fin situation, is it?”

“What?” I snapped. “No! No… I barely know Cody. What? He just got into town like last week.”

“Uh huh.” Faye waited until I had my plate loaded up before she pulled me to one side and quietly asked, “I had it wrong, didn’t I? You totally have the hots for the new cowboy in town, don’t you?”

“FAYE! NO!” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I kept my eyes squeezed shut as I continued through clenched teeth, “Since I’m a Squire and he’s a Dark-Hunter, I feel nothing but the appropriate amount of concern for him.” I opened my eyes and leveled her with a glare. “Understood?”

Faye’s eyes widened when she saw my heather green eyes darken to a true emerald green before she answered, “Yes… totally understood.”

I smiled and felt every muscle in my body relax “Good. Now, let’s eat because I’m starving.”

“Me too. Here, you find us a seat and I’ll grab us a couple of drinks. Beer with dinner, right?”

I took her plate and nodded answering, “Right.”

As Faye made her way over to the bar, I let out a sigh of relief. With Faye’s attention focused on getting our drinks, I could watch Cody without worrying that she would catch me. I had gotten really good at following someone’s movements with just my eyes, but for some reason Faye was the only person on the planet would could tell when I was doing it.

Cody made his rounds and greeted everyone by the door before he continued towards the bar. He exchanged a few words with my best-friend and then he wrapped his arms around her in an intimate looking hug. I felt a soft growl start to pass my lips as my top lip curled into a sneer.

 _Stop it!_ I silently yelled at myself. _Nothing is going on between them. Just like NOTHING will EVER happen between the two of us. Now eat! Just focus on eating, dammit._

“Cody say congratulations,” Faye announced as she set down a tray filled with drinks before she sat down beside me.

“Holy gods on Olympus Faye! Do you want some food to go with those beers?”

“Hey! Half of them are for you. Plus, Dev said he’d move your truck into the private lot AND that we can crash at Pelletier house.”

“Oh… Well… in that case, where are your drinks?”

We then ate and drank like today was our last day on Earth. A few people came over to congratulate us and share a celebratory drink with us. I had commented to Faye that maybe we should get up and mingle. She countered that it was our party and we could sit if we wanted to and no one could say anything about it.

As we sat there, I hear the familiar sound of radio chatter one would expect at a rocket launch. Then came the beginning guitar right of the music for the song. I immediately started to look around the room in the expectation of finding my dad. This was our song and if I ever got married he decided we would use it or our Father/Daughter dance during the reception.

“Excuse me, Miss? May I have this dance?”

I looked up and found Cody standing beside me holding his hat over his heart. My mouth instantly went dry at the sight of him, so I just nodded as my reply. He placed his hat back on his head and picked up my righthand to gently guide me out of my seat towards the dance floor.

He twirled me around and then back into his arms with a practiced ease. We started to sway to the music as he lowered his lips to my ear to say, “You’ve finished your Bachelor’s Degree, that’s pretty exciting What’s the next adventure you’re going to conquer, Darlin’?”

“Hopefully a Dark-Hunter.”

“Oh?”

When I heard the teasing tone of his voice, I nearly buried my face into his chest and groaned, “No, not like that. I meant, hopefully I’ll ger assigned to a Hunter of my own.”

“Ah. Well, I guess that could be fun too.”

We then continued to dance while Cody continued to tease me. I don’t know if it was the song or if it was something about Cody himself, but I felt completely at ease with him. I even threw my head back a couple of times to let out a few loud laughs at his jokes.

FAYE WATCHED AS her best friend was being lead to the dance floor with a worried eye. She was pretty certain that Cora hadn’t noticed Fin standing beside Kyle at the jukebox looking like he was trying to convince the Were-Hunter of something. As soon as she heard Savage Garden’s “To the Moon and Back”, she was absolutely convinced that was the request Fin had made of the young bear.

What she didn’t quite understand was the look of longing she saw on Fin’s face when he noticed Cora wasn’t sitting at the table beside her. Her heart was threatening to break when she watched his face start to crumble when his eyes landed on Cora who was wrapped in Cody’s arms and laughing brightly.

 _Oh no!_ She thought to herself. _I’ve had it all totally backwards!_

 

 

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 4

Now that I was finished school I found out what it meant to be a Squire. Well, as a Dorian Squire. It meant that now I got calls at all hours of the night to help Hunters, Squires and other allies that had my number all over the city… and even beyond the city limits.

Tonight, I was in our den watching re-runs of the Gilmore Girls and assigning each of the characters to the people in my life. Faye most definitely was my Lane. Tabitha and Valerius reminded me of Babette and Morty. (Honestly, it works in my head.) Acheron was a mixture of Taylor Doose and Kirk. No, seriously it does make sense. He’s our leader and tries to organize our chaos into some kind of order (sort of like Taylor) and he’s everywhere and able to work on pretty much anything. (Tell me you didn’t just see kirk doing of the hundreds of jobs he did throughout the series.)

When my brain started playing the matchup game, I kept trying to see myself as Rory, but it didn’t really work. I’ve never really been in a long-term relationship and I really didn’t have my own Paris either. Instead, I felt more like Lorelei. Want to be in love, but never able to find that one person to give my heart. My best friend kept thinking he (Fin, Cody, Kyle or any other single guy who had a conversation with me) was right in front of me, but I was too wrapped in helping everyone else around me to notice him. She thought she knew the identity of my Luke, but I’m still not sure that I had met him.

Huh. If I’m Lorelei, didn’t that make Faye Sookie? A little eccentric, would maim who hurt me and called me out when I was acting like an idiot? Yeah, that would still work.

As another episode finished, I check the time again. Dawn was fast approaching, so I figured it was time to call it a night. As soldiers in Artemis’ army, the Dark-Hunters were forbidden to enter Apollo’s realm. If you want a visual of how bad it could get for them, think of the scene in ‘Interview with The Vampire’ where Claudia and Madeleine are killed by sunlight. I don’t know if Dark-Hunters turned to ash or not and I was going to do everything in my power to never find out.

Just as I was deciding to pack it in and head to bed, my phone started to ring. I almost ignored it, but then I saw a picture of the Dark-Hunters’ leader come up on the screen and I answered it as quickly as I could.

“Ash! Hey! What’s up? Err… I mean, how can I help?”

He laughed before answering, “Sorry to call you so late, but I need you to go pick up Cody and take him to Fin’s house. He was tracking what he thought was a small group of Daimons when he got hurt.”

“What do you mean by ‘what he thought was a small group of Daimons’?”

“Turns out they were sent out as bait to lure one of us into a trap. Which is also how he got hurt.”

“Shit. Okay… Where is he?”

“I’ve already sent you the coordinates and a map. He’s been able to find some cover, but he isn’t…”

“I’m already out the door, Ash. I’ll get him to Fin’s before you know it. Will there be a doctor there waiting for us?”

“No, he said he isn’t that badly hurt. They just drove him away from his motorcycle, so that’s why he’s stuck.”

“Oh… Okay. But…”

“Cora. All of your questions can be answered after you pick him up because if you don’t soon, then none of them will really mater, will they?”

“Right… Right! I’ll call you once we get to Fin’s.”

“Only if you HAVE to.”

He disconnected our call then an I just stared at my pone for a breath. I had known Ash for my entire life and he had always been a larger than life character. Quite literally. But tonight, he sounded so tired… No, exhausted and all of his other worldly power seemed to just disappear under the weight of his exhaustion.

What could do that to him? Well, he did have a wife and three kids at home now, so I guess that might have something to do with it. Yeah, that and ever Dark-Hunter or Squire who has a problem turns to him for the answer. Not to mention Simi, she’s more than a handful. And then there’s Artemis…

A cold shudder ran up my spine at that thought. “Better question,” I said out loud as I backed my Yukon out of the driveway. “How is he not comatose from having to deal with all of us?”

As luck would have it, there were very few cars on the road, so I was able to get to the coordinates Ash had sent me in record time. The sun had yet to start to rise, so I carefully navigated the narrow path on which I was driving because I wanted to get as close to Cody’s hiding place as possible with my truck. That way if the sun got too high in the sky at least he would be inside my truck and not struggling to get to it.

I was going slow because I still had yet to catch a glimpse of him. In the front of my brain it made sense because he been ambushed once so it wasn’t like he would be leaving himself vulnerable to allow that to happen again. In the back of my head, I was forcing myself not to give into the panic that wanted to overtake me because what if he wasn’t out here? What if something had happened to him while I was asking Ash stupid questions? What if…?

 _STOP IT!_ I silently yelled at myself. _Just stop it! Keep your eyes…_

My attention moved from the path to my phone when it started to ring. I didn’t recognize the number, so I just ignored it. Now was not the time to get stuck listening to some telemarketer trying to convince me to donate money to some charity. I had a job to do and I wasn’t going to half ass it now.

After missing three calls, my phone chimed with a text notification. It was accompanied by a photo of Acheron and the message was written in all caps.

“ANSWER YOUR PHONE!!”

No sooner did I have that message read that my phone started to ring again.

“Shit, Ash! I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“This isn’t Ash…”

“It isn’t? Then who IS this?”

“It’s Cody.”

“Cody! How…? When…?”

“Darlin’, Ash gave me your number after he told me you were my cavalry.”

“Oh… Right, of course. Sorry for…”

“It’s fine, Darlin’. But if you would be kind enough to stop your truck so I can get in, I’d be much obliged.”

“Stop? Oh shit!” I cursed as I slammed on the breaks.

I was mentally berating myself still when I heard a knock on the back of my truck. I hit my forehead against the backs of my hands holing the steering wheel before I hit the button to unlock the doors. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me? When did I become such a spazz?

My self-deprecating thoughts were so loud that I didn’t hear the door close. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I didn’t hear him open the little sliding window my dad had installed. (It made me really uneasy to talk to a black partition in the dark, so dad installed the window so that they could open it and talk with me. We decided that having the latch on the side where the Dark-Hunter was seated was the best idea to help them feel more secure.)

“Hey Beautiful.”

I jumped at the sound of Cody’s voice and let out a quick scream. “Oh gods, Cody!”

“I’m sorry,” he replied, obviously trying not to laugh. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah… I mean, yes, I will be. Just give me a second to catch my breath.”

“Now Darlin’, you know that normally I would tell you to take your time, but…”

He closed then latched the window shut, which helped to snap me out of my daze.

“Right, the sun is rising. I’ll get you out of here in a jiff. So? How badly are you-- hurt?”

“Well, it ain’t so bad now that I can sit.”

“Sit? What…? What’d they do to you?”

“Nothing worse than I did to myself. It’s just a little broken bone. It ain’t nothing a good night’s sleep with the right woman won’t fix.”

“Cody!” I chastised trying not to let him hear my laughter.

“Oh, sorry. Sorry. I meant a good DAY’S sleep with the right woman.”

“CODY!” This time I didn’t attempt to try to conceal how amused I felt. “I’m not sure the Oneri would take being called the ‘right woman’ too well.”

He let out a heavy sigh then replied, “Yeah, yeah that’s true. Too bad there isn’t a pretty girl close by who could keep me company while I sleep.”

I felt my cheeks heat up under an embarrassed blush. Never in my life was I more grateful for the modifications my dad and his crew had made on my truck. I knew that the wall behind me was sunlight proof, so I knew there was no way he would be able to see me if I had to work at schooling my face by the time I got to Fin’s house.

When I felt like I had my emotions in check (so that I wouldn’t sound like a love-struck teenager), I called out, “Cody, you need to heal, so why don’t you rest? The bed back there is super comfortable.”

“No… no…  I can’t… not yet…”

There were very pronounced yawns present in his speech that told me he was really fighting the urge to fall asleep. It also led me to believe that he was trying to be chivalrous and gentlemanly by remaining awake so that he could help me get him to bed for the day.

“Cody? You don’t have to stay awake for my benefit. Otto told Ash that he would be there with reinforcements to help me get you settled.”

“Otto? Are…? Trying…? Jealous?”

I chuckled softly at his insinuation before I heaved a heavy sigh of relief. If he wasn’t talking I would be able to maintain my stoic exterior while I finish helping to get him to bed. I needed to just be one of the guys when I was around my fellow Squires. For a long time it had been considered ‘men’s work’ and I didn’t want to be one of the women who proved that theory right. I couldn’t allow any of the other Squires (Faye excluded because I couldn’t hide anything from her) to see how Cody, or more precisely his accent, affected me. More than that, if Otto saw me fawning over a Dark-Hunter, I knew I’d be earning myself a one-way ticket to the corner of the world that was the furthest from wherever Cody was living. So ‘game face’ on was the goal whenever Otto was nearby. I got a pass at my graduation party because of the amount of alcohol most of us had consumed, but I didn’t count on that same forgiveness anytime soon.

I instinctively backed into the opened four door garage at Fin’s house. Thankfully the door in front of me started to close as soon as the nose of my truck cleared the threshold. Even better than that, the back hat of my truck opened the second my truck ceased its movement. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve done a lot of weight training, so I could carry over a hundred pounds of dead weight, but after staying up all night, I was starting to feel the effects of fatigue, so I wasn’t sure how helpful I’d be right now.

By the time I got out of the driver’s seat, there hadn’t been much movement at the rear of my truck, so I made my way there to investigate. Otto and Alfonse stood there with bemused looks on their faces prompting me to ask, “Is there something I can help you with gentlemen?”

Otto was quietly laughing as he turned his eyes to where I was standing. His laughter was quickly silenced as his eyes bugged out in surprise. I took half a step back and away from him as I worriedly asked, “What…? What’s wrong, Otto? Is he…? I mean I didn’t see him, how bad is it?”

“Cody? Nah, he’s fine and sleeping like a baby,” Otto replied as his eyes raked over my body. “Sorry, but Cora-Lee…? Is that really you?”

I scowled as I looked down at the oversized grey kangaroo style hoody I was wearing over a pair of my favorite faded and ripped (I don’t pay extra for distressed jeans that came with strategically placed rips and tears) jeans before I answered, “For the love of the goddess, really?  I was getting ready for bed when Ash called, so I didn’t have time to pretty myself up. I’m so sorry if this outfit offends your delicate sensibilities.”

Otto opened his mouth to retort, but he was interrupted by a very deep voice clearing their throat. Both Otto and I turned towards the sound and looked up into Acheron’s face. (No lie, one of my favorite things about the Dark-Hunters’ leader was that EVERYONE had to look up to him. Well, almost everyone. Styxx could look him in the eye, but they were practically identical wins, so that made sense. But all you had to do was see their eyes to tell the difference between them without hearing them speak… that’s if they had the same hair style, but that’s a different story.)

“It’s true, we aren’t used to seeing Cora dressed down for anything, but… Otto can we move on from that and just get the job done?”

Otto shook his head vigorously and answered, “Of course I can.”

He then turned on his heel and rushed to Alfonse’s side. They were struggling to get Cody’s now unconscious body out of my truck. Seeing the usually virile hunter look like nothing but a lifeless corpse stole the breath from my lungs.

Yes, at some level I understood that all Dark-Hunters were pretty much just really good-looking zombies but, seeing Cody like that still shocked me. When he was awake and alert, he was such a vibrant and animated soul that you forgot that Artemis had given him immortal life in return for their mortal soul.

Sure, I knew about all of that. Hell, I studied about it and even used it to my advantage when I was writing my final exam paper for Dr. Alexander. Alright, so maybe Cody wasn’t the one who helped me out with that, but you get the picture.

“Cora? Cora? Did you hear me?”

When I didn’t immediately respond, Ash gripped my shoulders and gave them a shake. “Cora-Lee?”

After a couple more shakes, my eyes finally focused on Ash’s face. “Ash? Oh… sorry. I… I was…”

“Worrying about Cody?”

He made what usually would be a statement into a question. More than that, he genuinely looked confused. Normally Ash seemed to be able to read people’s minds, mine included. But then again, a lot of things had changed since my psychic abilities had emerged.

_Maybe now I can…_

I stared into his swirling silver eyes and felt my mind start to open. As I continued to stare into his eyes, I no longer saw them or him for that matter. I started to see the ocean. At least I think it was the ocean. It wasn’t a shoreline I had ever seen before, so I had no clue where it might be.

Ash released my shoulders so fast that I stumbled back a step. My eyes refocused on his face again as she quietly asked, “How…? What did you…?”

“You’re a really good Dad, Ash. Not just to you kids, but to all of us.”

“You’ve come into your psychic powers,” he declared in his more assured manner.

I blushed replying, “Yeah, some. I’m sorry. They’re so new they kind of show up whenever they want. I honestly didn’t mean to pry.”

His easy smile returned and he looked more comfortable with me as he answered, “It’s alright. After we get Cody properly settled in here, you and I should sit down and talk about them. If I can’t help you to learn how to use them properly, then I’m sure I can find someone else to help you with them.”

“Thanks Ash, I’d really appreciate it. I mean, I’ve…” My lip started to quiver as tears welled up in my eyes.

“It’s alright, Cora. I completely understand, so I give you my word that I will do whatever I can to help you. But first, we finish our job tonight.”

My hands flew up to my cheeks in an attempt to cover up my blush. “Of course, we do. I can’t believe I’ve been so selfish. I’ll head in and help Otto.”

I turned to run into the house but was stopped by Ash’s iron clad grip on my forearm. “You are one of the least selfish people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. And you are a very hard worker, but your efforts aren’t needed here. I’m sure Otto and Alfonse have already gotten Cody into one of the safe rooms by now and are on their way home.” I could feel my eyebrows knit together in a scowl that caused Acheron to laugh. “I need your help with Fin.”

“Oh? Okay.” I started toward the door to the house again saying, “He must be getting ready for bed right now, so I’ll head down there.”

Again, Ash was quick to stop me. “Fin isn’t inside there.”

“What?” I turned to face him and stood up at my full height. “What do you mean he isn’t here? This is HIS house, why wouldn’t he be here?”

“His home was the closest with an enclosed garage that could fit your truck so that you could safely bring Cody in here to heal.”

“Alright, but what does that have to do with…? Oh… OH!” I paused and shook my head before continuing, “Dark-Hunters can’t congregate. If Fin was here, he’d deplete Cody’s power which would be counterintuitive to his healing. I swear, I’m usually a lot smarter than this, Ash. I’m so sorry.”

“No apologies needed. And of course, I know how intelligent and capable you are, but we can talk about all of that later. The sun is already starting to rise and I need your help making sure that Fin is safe for the day.”

“Me? I mean, I’m more than happy to help, but why me? Don’t you have a better Squire to do the job?”

I swear I saw a saddened look in Acheron’s eyes for a split second, but his voice didn’t show it at all when he replied, “Fin trusts you more than anyone. And I mean that. More than anyone on this planet Right now he’s somewhere unknown, so I want him to have an ally while he tries to settle in an unfamiliar house. I want him to be able to sleep so he can heal today and I’m not sure that he’ll be able to that without someone he trusts reassuring him that he’s safe there.”

My eyes went wide. I felt it, but at the same time I hated it. I already knew all of that about Fin, so why did it surprise me to hear it from Acheron?

“I can check on him myself…” Acheron started in a non-committed tone.

“No! Ash! I mean, Sir. I can do this. Really, I’m happy to help.”

He smiled softly and passed me a folded piece of paper saying, “I hoped you’d say that. This is the address where you’ll find him. Cody has requested that no one know the location of his house, so I need you to keep that confidential.”

“Of course. You know that I can Ash.”

“That I do. Call me when you’re ready for me to help you with your new powers.”

“I will, Ash.” I stepped forward to hug him, but I decided to offer him my right hand instead. As she shook it, I added, “I promise I’ll call you soon so that we can meet.”

He nodded then turned and left the garage out the door opposite to where I was standing. I really wanted to turn around and move into Fin’s house to find Cody and see how he was doing. But, I forced myself to walk to the driver’s seat of my Yukon. Otto was a great Squire and he would be one of the best people to make sure the Dark-Hunter was safe to heal, so I really shouldn’t have questioned him. Questioning a Carvalletti was like signing your own death warrant, which I wasn’t looking to do any time soon.

So, I drove to the address on the paper Ash had handed me without giving it another thought. It was a small cottage on the outskirts of the city that had the potential of being revived into a proper ranch with the right care and attention.

 It was beautiful and peaceful out here. So much so that our townhouse near the heart of New Orleans French Quarter now felt more like it was in the middle of mayhem every night. It was little wonder that Cody didn’t want to share this space with other people because it was hard to find a place like this and it was even harder to maintain such tranquility in this day and age.

After I parked my truck, I made a mental note of how high in the sky the sun had risen by now. Thankfully the front door was in a deep shadow, so I wouldn’t have to worry about hurting him there, but this house looked RIDICULOUS for day time sleeping. It looked like the ground and upper floor were lined with windows, so some would have had to do a lot of work installing blackout curtains to keep a Dark-Hunter safe from the sun’s harmful rays.

 _Please tell me that’s already been done,_ I thought to myself as I pushed pen the front door.

“Fin?” I called out as I stepped over the threshold. “Fin? It’s Cora! Are you in here?”

I didn’t receive a reply right away, but as soon as I looked around the first floor I thought I knew the reason why. None of the window coverings had been drawn, so the entire first floor was bathed in bright sunlight. No Dark-Hunter could survive in here right now, so I started to pull down every blackout shade I could find without saying another word.

Once the living room was blacker than some nights in the Bayou, I called out a tentative, “Fin?”

It took a few minutes , but I finally hear and anguished sounding groan followed up by a pitiful, “Cora?”

 


	6. Chapter 5

After I had all of the shades drawn in the living room, I called out, “Fin?”

It took a few minutes, but I finally heard an anguished groan, followed up by a pitiful sounding, “Cora?”

“Yeah, it’s me!” I replied as I searched the room with my eyes. “Fin? Where are you?”

“In here.”

“Here?” I questioned more to myself than to the man I couldn’t see. “Sorry Fin, I’m not trying to be dense, but I don’t know where ‘here’ is.”

Fin let out another loud, painfilled groan before he answered (through gritted teeth by the sounds of it), “Closet.”

I nearly tripped over my feet to get to the closet. Its doors had slats on it, so I started to worry that he had been exposed to sunlight while I made my way over here. If he had, that would explain why he sounded like he was in so much pain.

_DAMMIT!_

My hand was shaking as I reached for the door knob I really didn’t want to see how Fin would look with a sun burn, but I couldn’t be a coward. He was my friend and he deserved better from me.

Once I had the opened wide, I opened my eyes (yeah, I’m not proud to admit that I had closed them). What surprised me even more was that I couldn’t see Fin. I started pushing the jackets hanging in there to the side looking for him when I heard another deep moan.

“Fin?” I questioned in a high pitched squeaky voice. “Where are you?”

He didn’t answer me. At least, not in words. Instead, he fell on the floor in front of me. Or maybe collapsed is a better way to describe it.

I fell to my knees and started to pull him into my lap, but he resisted.

“Sun… day…”

“It’s okay,” I replied as I continued to pull him out of the closet. “I’ve closed all of the blinds. You’re safe.  Where are you hurt?”

“How…? How…?”

I brushed his hair back off his forehead answering, “Squire, remember? I’ve learned a thing or tow about spotting the warning signs.”

“Signs?” He sighed out.

“Yeah, signs,” I repeated as I tried to make him more comfortable on the floor. “You’re paler than usual and your skin’s all clammy. Plus, you’re having to force yourself not to pass out right now. So, before you have to sleep on the floor, tell me where you’re hurt.”

He attempted to laugh, but it turned into a cough. I grabbed a pillow from the chair closest to us and tried help him to settle in. And as comfortable as I could make him on a hardwood floor.

He caught my hand that as petting his head so that he could get my attention as he answered, “My leg.”

I tuned my eyes to his feet and immediately noticed something sticking out of his left shin. With all of the shades down I couldn’t really see what it was. I looked down at Fin’s face and saw that his eyes were now closed and he appeared to be concentrating on his breathing. He had told me that anytime I was hurt and didn’t want anyone to know by crying out, all I had to do was focus on keeping my breathing even. Thankfully I hadn’t had to use any of his tips or tricks yet, but they seemed to be working for him.

After forcing myself to take my eyes off Fin’s face, I started to stand up. While I was in an awkward crouch, I felt Fin grip my arm uncomfortably tight. I knew I’d be sporting some deep bruises for the next couple of days.

I leaned down and smoothed out some of the lines on his forehead and explained, “I need to turn on some lights, so I can see what’s wrong. And then I have to go out to my truck and get my First Aid Kit. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, you’re totally stuck with me today.”

“Th-th-thank…”

I placed my fingers against his lips to silence him. “Save your strength, Faenus Psari.” He tried to glare at me for using the name that hardly anyone had spoken in over two thousand years. “I promise, I’ll be right back.”

He let go of my arm and continued to do his breathing exercises. I watched him for a minute to reassure myself that he would be alright. When he didn’t do anything that caused me to worry about him, I moved as quickly as I could manage in the blackened room to turn on some lights. I nearly knocked over the first lamp I found. After I had it turned on, it took no time to find the switch for the overhead light.

That put me closer to the front door than to Fin’s side, so I decided to get my First Aid supplies before I inspected his wound. Thankfully he was deep enough in the room that he wouldn’t be affected by the sunlight when I opened the front door.

While I walked out to my truck, I checked my phone and found a couple of messages from my mom and Acheron. I sent mom a short reply saying that I was on Squire duties and didn’t know when I would be home. I didn’t go into details because I knew I didn’t need to say any more. Mom knew the variety of activities that fell under the umbrella of ‘Squire duties’ and that most of them were time sensitive. Plus, I could (and would) fill her in when I finally made it back home, hopefully some time tonight.

Since Acheron always seemed to know more than anyone else about the Dark-Hunters and what they were doing, I actually sat down on the back hatch of my truck to read his message. I really wasn’t all that long or detailed. He basically just said to let him know if the shades in the bedrooms wouldn’t be adequate or if there was anything else he could do to help. Since this was going to be Cody’s new home, I reminded myself to double check the black out screens in all of the bedrooms upstairs before I crashed for the day.

But before I did that I had to make Fin as comfortable as I possibly could after tending to his wound.

When I got back to Fin’s side, I checked his face before I inspected whatever it was that was imbedded in his shin. It still looked like his eyes were squeezed tightly closed while he concentrated on keeping his breathing even, so I figured that meant he was still awake. How he hadn’t succumbed to the exhaustion he had to be feeling was beyond me.

“Alright Fin,” I started in a soft voice. “I’m just going to… What the fuck!?”

“Wh-wh-what’s wrong?” He croaked out.

“What’s wrong…?” I nearly screeched until I looked down into his now opened eyes. I took in a deep breath the added in a much more subdued tone, “Fin. You have an arrow… and honest to the gods fucking arrow in your leg! What in Hades realm happened?”

He coughed out another laugh. “He got lucky for the last time.”

 _Last time._ Wow. So, Fin was stabbed in the left shin with a silver tipped arrow and he still made it back here. How did he do it? I mean all of his cars were still at his house, so…? Shit! He must have dragged himself here. At least I hoped that was the worst-case scenario.

I moved so that I was sitting beside his injured leg. I lifted my hands up more times than I cared to admit before I turned to look at his face and explain, “I’m sorry Fin, but I don’t even know where to start.”

“Taking it out of me would be a good place.”

“Yeah, I know, but…” I looked at his leg and then his face and continued, “But I’ve seen the arrow heads you use… won’t it hurt you more?”

“Cora… you’re…” He took in a deep breath and his voice became more strained with every word spoken. “You’re my only hope. I can’t go to anyone else because the sun’s up. I can’t fall asleep with it in me. Please, Cora, please…”

“Okay… okay… enough flattery, I’ll do it, but…”

“Cut off the end and push it through.”

I stared at him in awe for a second because he had read my mind. But he was right, I had to get to work so he could sleep and heal. I said a silent prayer to the gods on Olympus asking them for the strength to get through this without wussing out. Fin deserved better than that from me.

“Fin?” I called out quietly, hoping that my uneasiness couldn’t be heard. He opened his eyes and his pain-filled gaze almost stole the rest of my words. Almost. “Did…? Did you want me to grab you something for the pain?”

He managed a weak smile as he shook his head. “Just get it out of me, please?”

“Okay. But, I’m sorry…”

“Don’t,” he interrupted. “Just do what you have to, _Cher_.”

I turned to look at him again but swallowed my reply when I saw him with his eyes once again squeezed closed. Right, no more words, just action. I then lifted his injured leg and gasped out a breath. Not only had he been stabbed by the arrow, it had actually been impaled through his leg. How had it made it back here? How was he still conscious?

 _Questions for another time!_ I yelled silently to myself as I pushed the arrow the rest of the way through his flesh. I almost thought that he had finally passed out from the pain, but then he let out the softest noise of discomfort that froze me in my place. If I hadn’t been listening for it, I would have missed it and couldn’t help but stare at him in complete awe. I hadn’t been this severely injured before, but I was sure that here was no way that I would ever be so stoic or quiet. I amazed me that he was still so composed and had actually be trying to keep me calm during all of this.

“Alright Fin, I’ve go you all taped up, so let’s get you to bed then you can sleep it off,” I announced as I finished wrapping the tape over the gauze on his lower leg.

He immediately waved me off and replied in a groggy voice, “I’m fine here. Thanks Cora.”

“You’re…?” I stared down at him from where I stood by his head. “FIN! You are not sleeping on the hardwood floor!”

“Stairs… too… far…”

He rolled over onto his side and started to curl into the fetal position. I felt my lips pull back into a smile as a quiet laugh escaped. I not only looked beyond cute, he actually looked comfortable too. But the floor was not a place for a Dark-Hunter to sleep, unless it was a last resort.

He was not going to wake up with a kink in his neck, not on my watch.

I knelt down and shook his shoulder in the hopes that he hadn’t reached the land of Morpheus yet. He swatted at my hands and mumbled out a few curses in Ancient Greek that made me laugh softly.

“Fin come on. If not a bed, at least move op to the couch. It’s right here. And big and comfy. Come on, please?”

I think the last please and the pleading tone I used actually worked because he rolled onto his knees and started to crawl to the couch. Even thought I wasn’t really helping him, I did stick close to his side just in case. Luckily, I did because once his torso was on the cushions he seemed to have difficulties lifting his legs, so I immediately picked them up and placed them on the couch.

He quickly settled on the couch, so I ran upstairs to grab a blanket for him and a proper pillow. He looked like he was dead asleep (had I not seen he rise and fall of his chest I would have thought he was just dead) and thankfully now on his back. That made lifting his head and shoulders much easier in order to slip the pillow under them.

Fin didn’t seem to have noticed me placing the pillow behind his head, so I did jump when I felt his hand touch the side of my head while I tucked the blanket in around his body. When I turned my face to look at his, I was surprised to see he had his eyes open. I opened my mouth to admonish him, but he placed two fingers over my lips to keep me silent.

“ _Merci, mon amie,_ ” he whispered. “ _Les dieux m’ont béni avec ton amitié._ ”

“Fin,” I replied as tears started to gather in my eyes. “Go back to sleep.”

He had already closed his eyes and appeared to be completely unconscious again. I knew that Dark-Hunters were supped to lose complete consciousness when they were injured, so his current state didn’t bother me. What did worry me was that he some home kept waking up to talk to me. I wasn’t sure if that was usual or just something unique to Fin.

As such, I remained by his side longer than I probably needed to and watched him sleep. After five minutes of him doing nothing more than breathing deeply, I walked over to his side, leaned down and kissed his head before whispering, “ _Faites de beaux rêves._ ”

As I walked up the stairs, I quickly typed out a text to Acheron saying, “The blackout shades are more than adequate.”


	7. Chapter 6

Once I made it to bed, I completely passed out I must have been running on pure adrenaline at some point because I have never been able to get so much done on so little sleep before. It was good to know that was possible because I was sure that it wouldn’t be the last time I would have to complete such a feat. Although I wasn’t looking forward to feeling such an intense exhaustion again any time soon.

When I woke up later that day, well it was night but that’s just semantics, the house was filled with he inviting odors of bacon and coffee. I smiled into my pillow, silently thanking the gods that my mom was making me breakfast even though it was closer to being the dinner hour. When she and I had first talked about what it was like to be a Squire, she had stressed that the first thing you learned on the job was to forget all of the preconceived notions of time, especially when it came to meals. My hope was to be working as an Echo (or as some called it ‘Barnacle’) Squire for a Dark-Hunter, which meant that I would be living with them and likely sleeping on their schedule. That meant night was my new day and breakfast would be during everyone else’s dinner hour.

I rolled out of bed and pulled on my jeans that I had left on the floor before sitting on the bed again to reach for my brush. After I had eaten I would have a shower and properly start my day. Normally, I started my day with a cleansing shower, but I was still feeling the residual effects of the night before, so I knew I would need fuel (aka coffee) in me so that I could coordinate that feat.

My left hand hit the top of the bedside table with a dull thud. The EMPTY bedside table I confirmed as my hand moved back and forth over the smooth surface.

 _What in the name of…?_ I thought to myself as I opened my eyes. Had I not been sitting down, I probably would have fallen over once I opened my eyes completely and realized that I wasn’t in my room. Worst than that, I wasn’t in a room that I recognized at all.

My heart started to beat rapidly, so I forced myself to calm my breathing to try to think more clearly. There had to be a reasonable explanation for why I had woken up in an unfamiliar bed. I just had to work past the lingering exhaustion to remember what that reason might be.

As I worked on the breathing exercises Fin had taught me, my eyes landed on my phone. I lunged for it because no matter where I was, I know it would be a lifeline for me.

I had quite a few new text messages waiting for my replies. The majority of them were from my mom and I was tempted to read hers first, but I resisted that urge. I wanted to know where I was before I contacted her because if she had no idea where I was then both of us would end up in complete panic mode.

That would not be a pretty sight. _I love you too much to do that to either of us, Mom,_ I thought to myself as I scrolled to Acheron’s new message.

“Cody will be happy to hear that his house is finally ready. Fin must have lost his phone again, so can you ask him to check in with me whenever he gets a chance? Good work last night.”

_Cody…? Fin…? OH!_

And that when it all came back to me. Fin came to Cody’s house after he had gotten hurt, so I had taken Cody to fin’s place. I groaned and rubbed my temples to ease away the headache that was forming as my memories of the night before came back to me. Seriously, this feeling was worse than any hangover I had experienced. And I had been to Mardi Gras with Faye pushing me to act like a tourist in my hometown. I gave my collection of beads to her for safe keeping so that my parents wouldn’t find out just how much ‘fun’ I had had with her.

I was still laughing at how silly I now felt at my initial panic I had been feeling when I first woke up as I made my way down the stairs. I had managed to finger comb my hair back into a messy bun so that I could at least look somewhat presentable before I got home to show or find a brush to comb it out properly. Not that I thought Fin would really care or judge me for it because he had seen me after a vigorous workout. Talk about a horrific sight.

When I finally found the kitchen, I stopped in the doorway to watch Fin work. He had cooked a plateful of bacon, brewed coffee and made toast, but it looked like he was still cooking something at the stove. There was an empty carton of eggs on the counter, so I deduced that was the next part of the meal that he was working on to complete.

I must have made some sort of unconscious noise to alert Fin to my presence because he said (without turning to look at me), “Did you sleep well, Cora?”

I gaped at his back until I saw him turn his head to look at me. “More like I passed out from exhaustion.”

He chuckled at that and I moved deeper into the room while I watched his shoulders shake.

“But, shouldn’t I be asking you about that?”

He shrugged then turned to move the scrambled eggs from the pan to a plate. Our eyes didn’t meet because mine quickly moved to look over every part of Fin that I could take in. He definitely looked healthier than the last time I saw him and his left leg must have been feeling much better because he wasn’t limping or even listing on that leg at all.

“CORE!”

I startled out of my thoughts and turned my eyes back up to his face. He looked really concerned for a couple of breaths, but that quickly turned into quiet laughter. I felt my eyebrows knit together into a scowl and that caused him to laugh even harder.

Before I could ask him about his amusement, Fin poured a rather large mug of coffee and passed it to me saying, “Looks like your visit to Morpheus’ realm wasn’t as repairing for you as it was for me, _mon_ _amie._ ”

I inhaled the scent of the ink black liquid and reveled in its heat and aroma as I replied, “well no one has brokered a deal for the Oneroi to heal us Squires while we sleep, so can you blame me?”

He sat down on a stool on the opposite side of the island where I now found my seat. I watched as he dished out his meal causing me to very earnestly say, “You really are doing alright, aren’t you? Last night you… I mean, I… no, not… I meant… you looked like death had come to claim you, are you really feeling okay today?”

He froze in his spot while he watched me struggle to get my question out. Poor guy, I was so not the human with whom he should have to deal with this early in his day.

But Fin was never one to put someone down unless they did something glaring to earn his wrath. “Yes, Cora-Lee, I am doing much better. One of the abilities I inherited is regeneration. So long as I can rest and there’s no foreign objects in my body, I’ll heal completely.”

“Like in Universal Solider?”

He chuckled then said, “Something like that, but I don’t need the cryogenics to make my healing work.”

“That’s cool. So? What are you other abilities?”

He waved a piece of bacon at me and shook his head answering, “I can’t go spilling all of my secrets to you.”

“But I’m your friend, Fin. You don’t keep secrets from your friend.”

He gave me a sad smile then replied, “That’s true. How about a compromise? When the need for one of them arises, I’ll tell you that it’s one of my powers?”

“That sounds fair to me. So…? Cooking? Is it one?”

He let out a loud laugh then answered, “No. For that you can thank the Food Network.”

“Thank you, Food Network,” I stated solemnly, like it was a prayer to the gods on Olympus. After another hearty laugh from Fin, I very carefully chose my words before I added, “So, when I woke up, I had a few txt messages… Most notably from Ash…”

He silenced the rest of my statement by holding up his cell phone. At least I was pretty sure that the rectangular piece of black plastic that had a hole the size of a half dollar in it was his cellphone.

“What the fuck?” I gasped out.

Fin clucked his tone at me. What can I say? For as modern of a man that he could be at times, Fin really hated it when I swore sometimes. And I guess over a delicious breakfast that he had made for us was one of those times

“I’m sorry, I honestly didn’t mean to cuss like that Fin,” I apologized sincerely. “But DUDE, look at it. What in the name of Hades happened?”

“He didn’t go for my leg first.”

“What? Where…? Oh gods… Tell me you don’t keep your phone in your breast pocket!”

Fin’s cheeks turned pink. I swear he actually blushed at that question. I didn’t even know that Dark-Hunters were capable of such a thing.

“It’s the only pocket I’ve found where it doesn’t fall out when I’m fighting.”

“Fin…” I started even though I wasn’t sure what else I was going to say.

“I have spares at home. Ash bought me a dozen and loaded them with all of my contacts and stuff so all I need to do is put my card thing into it to make it work properly.”

“Oh? Okay. Here, pass me your phone.”

He very slowly reached over to do as I asked. I know it was an odd request, but Fin complied with nothing more than a questioning look to his face. We had been through a lot together and I can’t tell you how touched I felt at his trust in me.

Fin remained silent as I placed what used to be his phone on the counter top and took a picture of it. Although I didn’t have to because I knew Fin trusted me implicitly, I still tilted my phone so that he could see me type out, “Well… he didn’t lose it Ash, but it might take a bit longer than I expected for him to get back to you.”

Although it took a bit more time than I thought it would, Ash replied, “Thanks for the visual aid. Tell Faenus there’s no rush and just to check in whenever he gets his new phone up and running. Fin I know you’ll have to wait to get home.”

Fin took my phone out of my hands to reply, “Thank you Sir, I will let you know as soon I have my new phone.”

After he hit send, Fin place the phone in the palm of my hand. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me, which made it easier for me to blur you, “You didn’t make a face.”

He almost pretended that he hadn’t heard me as he asked, “What?”

“you didn’t make a face,” I repeated. “I mean when he called you… uhh… when Ash called you Faenus. You didn’t get that murderous look in your eye like you usually do.”

“Oh. That,” he answered like it was no big deal. “Not only is Ash my boss, he’s older than me and after everything he has helped me though, he has earned a lot of respect from me.”

“Oh? Okay. Good to hear someone has earned that from you.”

He smiled at that and tried to give me a petulant glare as he said, “I don’t always give people a murderous look. I let you call me my given name without reproach.”

“True, but again I’m your friend. I let Faye say shit to me that I’d hurt other people for even thinking,” I replied with a cheeky grin as I splashed more hot sauce onto his eggs and then my own. “Plus, you and Ash are the only ones that can say your name properly. I sound like such an ignorant American when I call you anything but Fin.”

He sprinkled some garlic salt over the hot sauce on our dishes retorting almost absentmindedly, “You aren’t ignorant. You are very well educated and treat every respectfully, even when they haven’t earned it.”

“You know what I mean, Fin!” We shared a smile and then clinked coffee mugs together in a silent toast. “But thank you for the compliment my friend.”

 

FIN MADE SURE to clean every dish we used while I put in a couple of loads of laundry. I wanted to make sure we at least made an attempt to clean up all of Fin’s blood before we left. I worked on a couple of drops I found on the rug for so long that Fin had to pint out that I was doing more damage than good. Don’t ask me why I was so fixated on those minute spots because I couldn’t tell you why they bothered me o much. They just did.

But either way I felt better that Fin and I were on the same page about leaving Cody’s house in the same condition we found it. That meant that we could divide and concur our tasks to get them done that much quicker.

I had even proposed that we do a quick detour to do some patrolling for Daimons because we had finished so early (well early for any of us who lived in the Dark-Hunter community). Fin had quickly nixed that plan saying that he needed to get home so that he could check in with Acheron. He needed to report what he had witnessed during his last fight because he was worried it might be part of a bigger trend. (Trust me, I tried to press him for details, but he kept them close to his chest. He wanted to confer with Acheron before he sounded any alarms.)

But more than that, he reminded me (numerous times) that I should get home to check in with my mother in person. He stressed the words ‘in person’ so many times I begun to roll my eyes when I heard it. I hated to admit it sometimes, but I was a total momma’s girl and she really was my first best friend, so I didn’t argue with him… much after he mentioned going home to her.

Before he could slip out the passenger door, I reached out to catch his arm in a loose grip to get his attention to say, “If you change your mind and decide to go out patrolling, let me know, okay?”

Fin gave me an unimpressed look replying, “Cora, you need…”

“I’m headed there, I swear!” I cut in. “But if you go out, please let me know. I just want to make sure you make it home safe too, okay?”

Fin knew that I wasn’t being completely truthful, but he wasn’t ready to call me out on it just yet. Instead he just smiled and nodded before replying, “Alright, if I go out I’ll let you know. You get yourself home safe.”

“I will. I promise, I will.”

I didn’t wait to watch him go into his house before I put my tuck into gear and drove away. Fin could take care of himself, heck he didn’t even need me to drive him home, but for some reason I wanted to do and make sure that he got home safe. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that he had looked like he wasn’t going to make it through the night alive. I know it was silly to be so worried still, but no one said that feelings were rational.

After I parked my tuck, my phone started to vibrate. I pulled it out and couldn’t help but to smile when I saw the name on my call display.

“Thank the goddess you made it through the day alive.”

“All thanks to you.”

My cheeks turned hot at the earnest tone he used. “Cody, I… I’m always happy to help.”

“I am too. And thanks for the bacon you left me. It was one thing to come home to fresh sheets on my bed, but it was a whole other thing to have a plateful of bacon in the fridge waiting for me.”

I chuckled softly then said, “Well the sheets? That’s all me, but… well… I should give you Fin’s number, so you can thank him.”

“I’m sorry, what do you mean Darlin’?”

That made me laugh out loud. “He’s the one who made breakfast, so you should be thanking him for the bacon.”

“Oh… well… I’ll maybe say something to him later, but right now I’m talking to you. And truth be told, I’d rather be talking to a pretty girl like you anyway.”

“Cody!” I tried to chastise him while my blush deepened. “You are such a terrible flirt.”

“Only to pretty girls who catch my eye.”

“Cody…”

I paused there when I heard the sound of my mother clearing her throat to get my attention. I turned and smiled at her, but her expression didn’t change. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she looked genuinely angry.

Since that was such a foreign expression for me to see on her face, I quickly told Cody that I would call him back and terminated the call.

I kept a smile on my face and cheerfully said, “ _Bon soir, Maman!_ ”

Her hands moved to her hips and she somehow managed to look more angry when she asked, “And where in Zeus’ name have you been?”

 

 


	8. Chapter 7

“And where in Zeus’ name have you been?”

Although I really didn’t mean to, I laughed at her question. That earned me a glare I had never seen on my mother’s face before along with an unimpressed eyebrow lift.

“ _Maman,_ I told you, I had some Squire duties to tend to.”

“And those kept you out all night last night, then all day today and into tonight?”

I felt myself scowl in confusion as I answered, “Actually, yes. I told you I was on Squire duty, meaning that I made sure that Fin was comfortable so that he could sleep all day, so he could heal.”

“You made sure he was comfortable, did you?”

My cheeks burned hot under an embarrassed blush at the suggestive tone in her voice and the look on her face. “MOM! You know that isn’t what I meant!”

“Good, it better not be. I’ve raised you better than that.”

I sniffled in a breath and whispered, “You did.”

She didn’t appear to have noticed that I was nearly bursting into tears at her sharp words and withering glare because she didn’t stop her verbal lashing.

“You can’t be a Squire if you’re going and slutting around with Dark-Hunters… You know that, right?”

“MOM!”

“What?” She countered, completely unphased by my shock. “You know as well as I do how quickly Acheron and Artemis will decommission you if they think that you’re banging your charge.”

“I know!” I nearly shouted in the hopes that I could get her to stop spewing out her ugly accusations. “But I don’t have a charge yet.”

“Cora-Lee,” she nearly spat out as if my name was a curse word. “Please tell me you aren’t that dense.”

I simply gaped at her causing my mom to throw her hands up in the air. She then turned her back on me muttering, “I knew I should have turned you away when Ash brought you to us.”

As her words sunk in, I reached out and grabbed her shoulder asking, “What?! What did you say?!”

She turned back and glared at me and level me with an angry look. My hand immediately fell away from her body even before she replied, “You heard me.”

“No,” I retorted after I swallowed back a sob. “No, I don’t think I heard you properly.”

“Fine.” She turned and made painfully direct eye contact with me. “I’ll say it again. If I had of know I would be raising a slut who would sleep with any Dark-Hunter she met, I would have told Acheron to take you to someone else to raise.”

“I’m not sleeping with Fin!” I nearly shouted in utter rage. “Why won’t anyone believe me about that?!”

“Maybe it’s because we’ve all seen how you look at him.” I opened my mouth to protest, but she steam-rolled over me saying, “And not just him… Cody too.”

I couldn’t speak for a second because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “They’re… We’re… we’re just friends. But enough about that bull… Let’s go back a stop. What do you mean you would have told Acheron to take me to someone else to be raised?”

She let out a loud scoff then answered, “Really Cora-Lee? You look nothing like Joseph or me, let alone being a mixture of the two of us. You can’t tell me this is really a surprise.”

“Actually… YES! It is!” I didn’t bother to try to calm or slow the tears that were now spilling down my cheeks. “I can’t believe this is how you decided to tell me you aren’t my real mother!”

She all but rolled her eyes saying, “I figured you already knew. But no mind. I can’t have a Hunter-Bunny living under my roof, so…”

“So? So…? What?”

She shook her head and made a show of looking at her watch before she answered, “I have some errands I need to run. Maybe we can get into all of that later?”

“Yeah… okay… later,” I whispered towards her retreating back.

She didn’t even attempt to look back towards me when I said it. Normally we never left the house without a hug or at least a couple of affirmations of love. The norm for us was for one of us to say, “I love you…” while the other replied “To the moon and back”, but tonight? Tonight, it was like I was talking to a stranger. Which, apparently, she was tome.

 _What is happening?_ I thought as I walked up to my room.

I passed by the family photos that lined the hallways of our home as I made my way upstairs. Only now I was looking at them with a different set of eyes. Now I was staring into our faces and asking myself how I could have been so blind? How had I never noticed it before?

Both of my parents had blond hair and blue eyes.  Mom had her Germanic roots to thank for her coloring whereas Dad loved to go on about his Scandinavian heritage for his. I knew Faye was a friend for life after she graciously sat through his favorite lecture about how the spelling of Scandinavian surnames had the same, if not more, significance than family names from Great Britain. How she didn’t groan out loud or openly roll her eyes through some of the drier explanations, I still marveled at to this day.

Once I made it to the top of the stairs, I sat down on the chair by the window on the top floor that looked over the street below. I had fallen asleep on this chair more times than I cared to admit while I waited for one or both of my parents to get home from helping someone in our community. It could be anything from shuttling a hunter to a safe house like I had done for Cody as dawn approached to getting medical supplies to Peltier House to help our Were-Hunter friends. But now those memories felt so tainted after hearing my mother’s scathing words after I had been doing the exact same thing earlier today.

But those memories weren’t the reason that I loved this spot so much. I pulled open the drawer of the stand that had been beside the chair up here for as long as I could remember. Inside, like always, I found my baby book and pulled it out. I absentmindedly started to slowly flip through it without actually looking at the photos because I already knew their sequence by heart.

Instead I thought back to a conversation I had with my mother while I was sitting in this very chair a few years ago.

**“ _Mon bijoux?_ Is something wrong?”**

**I wiped a tear from the corner of my eyes as I watched my mom carefully place a laundry basket filled with clean folded clothes on the floor so that she could move to my side to hug me.**

**“Sweetheart? Who do I have to send to Hades’ realm for making my _petit bijoux_ cry today?”**

**“No one,” I replied with a tear-filled laugh.**

**“Cora-Lee,” she started in a warning tone.**

**I shot out of the chair to hug her tightly before I replied, “Honestly, there’s no one you need to snuff out for me.” I reclaimed my seat and opened the book to a random page. “I was trying to decide which photo I wanted to submit for the yearbook when it hit me…”**

**She moved to stand by the back of the chair and started to pet my head as she asked, “What hit you, Sweetheart?”**

**I let out a teary laugh answering, “I’m not a little kid anymore. I’ll be graduating next Spring and then I have to become an adult. I don’t think I want to be an adult yet.”**

**“Well, you don’t have to worry about that yet. After you finish High School, you’ll be heading off to college, but you can stay living here and still be my little girl while you do.”**

**“Mom, that will only delay the inevitable.”**

**“So?” She countered as she hugged my head and kissed my temple. “If I could stop you from growing up any more than you already are, I would. But I don’t have that power, so if all I can do is delay it, then that’s what I’ll do.”**

**“ _Maman_ ,” I weakly countered as I turned to hug her fiercely. “Thank you for not making fun of me. The gods truly blessed me when they made you my mother.”**

**“I won’t argue that because I feel the same way about the day they blessed me with you as my daughter.”**

**“ _Maman_ … Mom… I love you…”**

**“To the moon and back, _mon bijoux_. To the moon and back.”**

**She then sat down on the arm of the chair and just hugged me tight. It was such a familiar thing for her to do, it always made me feel completely loved and completely safe. It hurt my heart to think that there were people in the world who not only didn’t have a relationship like this but might never know a love like the one I shared with my parents. To never know what it was like to be truly blessed by the gods.**

**After a couple of minutes of just hugging each other in silence, I shifted in my seat so that it would be easier to be heard when I asked, “Mom? Can I ask you a question?”**

**“Of course, you can, Sweetheart. You can ask me anything.”**

**“Okay. Well…” I started slowly. “In this album, there’s… I mean… You aren’t…” I placed my head into her lap, so she could resume stroking my head and hair again. “There’s no pictures of you pregnant with me in here.”**

**“Oh, Sweetheart. That’s YOUR baby album, so you’re the star. You don’t need any horrific photos of anyone else in there ruining your album.”**

**“MOM! Don’t say that. I’m sure you were beautiful.”**

**“And I’m sure that I wouldn’t be. But that? That isn’t what’s adding to your tears right now, is it?”**

**“No,” I answered honestly before I sat up and looked her in the eye. “No, this is really all just over me getting older. It’s getting weird for me to think that I don’t be your little girl anymore.”**

**She held my face with both of her hands and stroked my cheeks with both of her thumbs. “You will ALWAYS be my little girl. Even when you come back here with you own little ones, you will STILL be my little girl. Is that understood, _mon bijoux_?”**

**“Yes, Ma’am. _Nous comprenons nous._ ”**

**We shared a laugh then and the whole house felt lighter. I don’t know how I ever let my feelings fester for so long because now she had been able to ease my mind completely. I kept thinking that I should say something and now I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner.**

**“So, topic change. These are the photos I was thinking of using.”**

**“Really?” She questioned with her nose scrunched up in the same way I had grown accustomed to seeing when she was teasing me. “I thought this one would be more fun.”**

**“MOM!” I nearly shrieked out in boisterous laughter. “I am NOT submitting a photo with full frontal nudity! Even if I was a baby in the bath with Simi!”**

**“But look at your little horns! They’re beyond too cute.”**

**“Horns? Wait!” I quickly flipped to a page and found a photo of me just after I had turned one years old. I was propped up on Simi’s lap while she worked to straighten out the horns on my head. Apparently, I cried anytime my mom and dad took them off of me, which they only did to bathe me for a short while. Everyone who saw them on me thought they had grown naturally because they were the perfect color of green to match my eyes.**

**She took the picture I was holding and wrinkled her nose as if she wasn’t happy about my choice.**

**“** **_Maman?_ ** **_Ça va?_ ”**

**“Yeah, I guess you’re kind of cute in this one. But the other one, you are _trop mignon._ Won’t you reconsider?”**

**That’s when I saw it. The undeniable gleam in her eye that she could never hid when she was teasing me. Which told me that this was the photo she really wanted me to pick and that she was trying to let me ‘choose’ it.**

**She hugged my face into her chest and I could hear the tears naked in her voice when she said, “** **_Je t’aime, mon petit bijoux, avec tout de mon cœur.”_ I then felt her place a fierce kiss against the crown of my head. “And don’t you ever forget that, my beautiful girl.”**

**I choked back a sob and replied, “I love you too, Mom.”**

I wiped a couple of tears off my cheeks and tried not to let the bitterness in my heart take me over. But as I looked around the top floor that was hard to do because there were the remnants of happy memories everywhere I turned. Happy memories that were now becoming tainted.

Looking down at the baby album in my lap, I let out a humorless laugh. _Forget about lying about Santa, my mom wins the prize for best liar. You can’t have pregnancy photos for an album if you were never pregnant to begin with. And the stories she told to get around the truth? Wow, I would applaud her if…_

As a sob escaped out of my lips, I took in a calming breath. _No, NO! No more tears. You have to figure_ _out what you’re going to do next._

That’s when I made my decision. I left the baby book out on the chair and marched into my room like a woman on a mission. I didn’t really have a plan fully figured out, but I knew that I couldn’t stay here. Not after everything she said about…

 _NO! No more tears!_ I silently yelled to myself as I pulled out two duffle bags from my closet.

As I started to throw my clothes into them I suddenly stopped. I stared at the mound of clothes on my bed. A lot of my clothes had been gifts from different people over the years. I immediately threw anything that looked like it came from Lilac and Lace Boutique away from my bag. Bride is one of my favorite human beings on the planet because once she knew the style you liked, she would make sure to source out pieces or you. That turned into a lot of mother/daughter shopping trips for us and hat’s how I got a lot of my ‘favorite’ pieces o clothing. Or at least I used to think they were my favorites.

Like this leather jacket. It was the perfect shade of ox blood with some badass metal embellishments.

I forced myself to toss it onto the discard pile. Then I made sure to pack pieces that were just generic staples, like jeans and t-shirts, along with some hoodies. Or stuff that Faye had bought me. I swear she only takes me into Tabitha’s store, ‘Pandora’s Box’, to see what makes me the most squeamish to buy my presents. (Thankfully we started a tradition of having a private lunch together where we exchanged gifts so that I wasn’t embarrassed in front of my family and our friends. Instead it would just happen in front of her and our server.)

After I had everything packed, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and tossed it onto my bed. I’d have to get another one, but that was a problem for another day. I had my laptop, so that I could let people like Faye know that I was still alive. Well, technically because I really felt like I was dying inside.

After I slipped behind the steering wheel of my truck, I stared out the windshield and nearly burst into tears. Now where was I going? What was I going to do? Leaving seemed like such a simple choice. But now where would I go? Everywhere I thought of seemed so obvious that she would figure out where I was right away.

Without putting any conscious thought into it, I started driving around. It was actually kind of scary that I knew this city well enough that maneuvering my truck around it without really paying attention was easily done.

That thought bothered me so much that I forced myself to pull over to catch my breath. Unfortunately, when I looked up and I noticed where I had driven I lost the ability to breathe. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t really get my lungs to actually fill with air for more than a couple of minutes.

 

 


	9. Chapter 8

Eve Christianson nearly tore a chunk of hair out of her skull while she waited for her husband to call her back. Their daughter had been missing for three days and no one seemed to be as worried about that fact as much as she was right now. When she first got home from helping a small camp of wolves (of the Were-Hunter variety) who were hiding in our time from a truly horrific pack master, (Yes, our ‘time’. They can travel through time and dimensions, but that’s a story for another time.) she was nearly hysterical because she thought that Cora had been kidnapped.

It took Acheron, Otto, Kyrian, Julian, Sunshine, Talon, most of the Peltier clan and every Kattalakis available to convince her otherwise. Yes, it looked like Cora’s room had been ransacked, but there was no evidence of a crime. Vane had even pulled out some of his Were-Hunter powers to try to prove to her that no one or no THING had been in her house in the last twenty-four hours. Why her phone was found laying on her bed was much harder for all of them to explain.

But the worst part was that all of this was happening while Joseph was in the swamp of the Ozarks tracking a treacherous Squire who had conspired to kill his Dark-Hunter. Apparently, the would-be murderer paid better than a warrior in Artemis’ service. Joseph technically had been on radio silence since before Cora’s graduation party, but he had broken protocol to check in with her. And now his party was back to complete radio silence, so Eve was alone to worry about their missing daughter.

 _Just kill the bastard already, Joseph,_ she thought to herself while she sat on Cora’s bed, hugging her baby album to her chest.

Then she heard a ding. A literal one. Cora’s phone had nearly been dead by the time Eve had made it home and found the terrifying state of her daughter’s room. She quickly plugged it in to try to track Cora’s movements, but Cora had deactivated her Facebook and Twitter accounts while her Snapchat and Instagram accounts had become dormant since she had been separated from her phone. This had been the first sign of life in over thirty-six hours and Eve practically ripped the power cord in half at hearing the familiar chirp.

When she illuminated the screen, she immediately saw the email notification with the preview subject line of, “How ya holding up?”

Her hands were clumsy because she tried to move too fast, but somehow, she as able to open it.

“Hey Little Wanderer, just wanted to check in… OH SHIT!!! SHIT!!! SORRY!!!”

“THAT’S IT?!” Eve shouted at the phone. “THAT’S ALL?!”

 _Oh no!_ She thought to herself. _She has a secret email account that’s not synched to her phone. But… WAIT!_

With her last realization in mind, Eve jumped to her feet and ran to her car. She really hoped that she was right about her daughter’s best friend’s schedule. Faye seemed less concerned about her duties as a Squire since she finished University than she was about trying to ingratiate herself in the Were-Hunter community. From what Cora had told her, it sounded to Eve that Faye was enamored with a Were-Hunter and would rather be mated than chained to a Dark-Hunter. So, her best bet was to go to where anyone could find a Were-Hunter without even trying.

She looked like a crazed woman as she stalked up to the front doors of Sanctuary and didn’t wait for Dev to greet her before she snapped out, “Is she here?”

“Cora? No…” He reached out to try to embrace the human to try to calm her down, but she smacked his hand away. “Eve, I swear on Sam’s life, if any of us see your daughter, you’ll be the first person to know.”

She pulled out Cora’s phone and nearly bashed it into his nose as she retorted, “‘Not her! FAYE! Is Faye here sniffing around for what’s his face?”

“Faye?” He questioned in a bit of a daze. “Yeah, she’s in her usual booth. Why…?”

He wasn’t able to get out the rest of his question before the distraught mother was pulling open the door. As he stood to give chase, Dev contacted his family telepathically to warn all of them because he was sure that she was going to make a scene. He knew how scary a protective mother on the hunt could be, so he was going to need reinforcements to keep this from getting ugly.

Unfortunately for them, Eve seemed to have her own source of superpowers and she made it to the booth before any of them. Just as tragically, or maybe it was a good thing for her, Faye wasn’t alone. Her beau had finally realized he had mutual feelings for her recently, so they had been chatting, very closely when Cora’s mother arrived.

“Where is she?” Eve angrily asked as she slammed her daughter’s phone down on the table.

Faye jumped in her seat and moved away from her companion as she dizzily asked, “Mrs. Christianson?”

“Faye,” the older woman pleaded with a new round of tears falling from her eyes. “Please? You’ve been talking with her. I saw your email. Where’s my baby? Who has her? Is she hurt?”

Faye scowled in confusion for a few seconds before her latest mistake hit her. She was gently shaking her head as she replied, “No one has her, Mrs. Cee. She… she just needs some time alone to think.”

“Okay, she’s thinking. Fine. But where? WHERE is she doing all this thinking, Faye?”

“I… I don’t know…”

“YOU DO!” Eve interrupted as she slammed her fist on the table. “Don’t lie to me! Where is my daughter Faye?!”

Faye cowered inter her boyfriend’s side in the hopes to increase the space between her and the scary looking mother. “I swear I don’t know. She won’t tell me where she is, but she’s told me that she’s safe. She even said that she’s with someone that she knows would rather die than see her get hurt. So, I’ve been trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and haven’t pestered her about it.”

“She’s with someone who… But Ash said… Who…?” Eve mumbled to herself as she took a step away from the table.

Faye slid to the edge of the booth, ready to catch her friend’s mother’s arm because she looked like she might trip and fall. “I swear to Aletheia that I have no idea where Cora is right now. I’ve told her that you must be beside yourself with worry and to call you, but… but…”

When Faye trailed off there, Eve took one of the younger woman’s hands into both of hers and tearfully pleaded, “But what, Faye? Why won’t my baby call me?”

“She wouldn’t say. The last time we talked she mentioned that you two had some sort of falling out and that’s why she needed some alone time.”

“Falling out? I… I don’t understand.”

“Me neither, but it’s what she said and that’s all I know. I… If I hear from her again, I can let you know if you want.”

With a new onslaught of tears in her eyes, Eve whispered, “Please, if you would.”

“I will. I promise.”

Eve then turned away from the table at the same time that Faye turned into the arms of her boyfriend. “Remind me never to piss off Cora’s mom. She’s even scarier than Mama Peltier could be.”

“It’s because she loves Cora so much. But yeah, steer clear of her and her husband. He’s a Squire trained interrogator.”

“Ouch. But, I thought you said…”

“I know,” Faye interrupted as she pulled out her phone to call Cody. (Alright, so she knew who Cora was with, but she didn’t know WHERE he lived. So, technically sis didn’t know where Cora was right now.) to see if she could try to talk to Cora again because it was too easy for her friend to be evasive through emails lately.

 

I WOKE UP TO the sound of a knock on the door. I still wasn’t in a social mood, so I stayed rolled in a ball and pretend I was still asleep. Over the three days I had been staying here, I had Cody convinced that I slept like the dead and that one could wake me up. It was easier to do that than trying to explain why I was on the verge of bursting into tears at any moment.

I heard him open the door and then quietly said into the phone, “Sorry Faye, she’s still sleeping, and I’d rather not disturb her…. Yeah… okay, I will. Darlin’, I said I will, so I will… Alright. Good night.”

I forced myself not to move because I didn’t hear him close the door. In fact, I thought I was hearing him walk deeper into the room (that’s to the noise his cowboy boots were making). But, that wasn’t confirmed until I felt him sit down on the mattress by my back.

“Faye asks that you call her when you wake up, no matter the time.”

I rolled over onto my back and shifted to my right side so that I could see his face easier. He smiled down at me and brushed back a lock of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear.

“She also asked that I get you to call you Ma too. In fact, she was quite insistent that I pass on that part of the message to you. Darlin’? Are you quarrelin’ with your Ma? Is that why you’re hiding out here?”

I shrugged my shoulders as my head started to nod. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to answer what really was a simple question, but I could feel a lump forming in my throat to accompany the tears gathering in the corners of my eyes.

“Hey… hey… no tears, Darlin’.” He leaned down and scooped me into his arms. Thankfully the comforter got caught between our bodies, so he didn’t get the full show of my lack of clothing. “I didn’t mean to make you cry, Cora. Honest, I didn’t.”

“I know you’re being too nice, Cody,” I replied as I relaxed into his embrace. “It’s just that… Every day I go to bed and I almost forget what happened. And then I wake up and I… I remember where I am, and it hits me all again like it did the first time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh gods, Cody!” I cried out as I pushed back out of his arms so that I could look him in the eye. “I didn’t mean it like that! I meant, I remember WHY I’m here… Here, in your beautiful, comfortable, cozy house. Not where, but why. I swear.”

He ran the backs of his fingers against the side of my face in what I would have called a loving gesture if I came from pretty much anyone else in my life. But, he was a Dark-Hunter and I’m a Squire, so I forced myself not to react to his touch. I didn’t allow myself to snuggle in towards his warmth, into the comfortable way that my head seemed to fit perfectly into the palm of his hand.

 _Oh shit!_ I thought to myself as I nuzzled my cheek against his work rough, calloused palm. _It’s fine. He’s just comforting a friend whose been distraught and crying for days, that’s all this is._

“I know what you mean, Honeycomb. Just like I don’t mind you using my home as your own little hideaway, but…” He paused there to cup my cheeks in his hands and brush his thumbs back and forth against the apples of my cheeks. “But you haven’t eaten more than a squirrel since you been here. You need to eat to help to give you strength to help you get through all of this ugliness.”

“I know,” I whispered with my eyes fixed on anything but his face.

He let out a heavy sigh then said, “Look, I ain’t your Pa and I ain’t your preacher, but that don’t mean I ain’t concerned that you’re gonna waste away on us. And it won’t do us no good if you can’t carry out your Squire duties because you’re laid up sick in bed. So, come down and eat. I’ve got all the fixin’s for a proper Bar-B-Que. Not enough for our Miss Simi’s appetite, but I reckon it’ll be enough for you and me.”

“You’re cooking for me?” Trust me, I hated the pathetic tone in my voice too.

He flashed me a grin that could met the ice around the coldest of hearts. “Only if you come downstairs… and not dressed like you’ve been swallowed by more sweats than I used to have in the Arizona desert.”

I felt my cheeks turn red as my eyes flicked down to my lap. They then got hotter when I saw the skin-tight tank top that I wore as pajamas when I knew it would be inappropriate to sleep naked.

He continued to grin as he lifted my chin up with a bent finger saying, “No PJ’s neither. Real clothes tonight Darlin’ or you get pork and beans, y’hear?”

That made me laugh the first real one since I packed up and left home. He smiled wide enough to show his fangs which made me smile wider.

“But you don’t have to rush. Proper Bar-B-Que, it takes time, Darlin’.”

I chuckled again before I answered, “I could probably use a shower too.” The look on his face made me cringe before I added, “Oh gods! Am I really that bad? Why didn’t you tell me how gross I am?!”

“You could never be gross,” he replied in a near reverent tone. “You are a vision sent to Earth by god… err… the gods.”

I had gotten off the bed to increase the space between us in case I smelled as bad as I thought I did during my last question. Of course, that now gave him a full view of tight shorts that matched my tank top. My parents gave me a lot of privacy at home, so after reading some studies on sleep, I started to sleep in the buff. But when I was somewhere less… private, I took to wearing skin tight clothes, so at least I could feel like I was still naked.

I instantly crossed my arms over my chest when I became aware of my state of undress, causing Cody to retreat a few steps back towards the door with his hands held up in surrender. “Like I said, take your time, Honeycomb. I’ll holler if ya take too long.”

“Okay, thanks…” I paused to swallow a sob of gratitude as I watched Cody turn and nearly sprint out of the room. “I appreciate it.”

After I had showered off four days of grossness, I returned to my room and started to dress in my go to house attire. I had the sweatshirt halfway over my face before I remembered that Cody had told me no sweats allowed. So, I threw the sweatshirt back onto the bed and stared at it for a minute. I had to have something more appropriate to wear in my luggage.

I started to pull out a pair of jeans from my duffle bag when my other bag caught my eye.

_No, jeans and… umm… a t-shirt? That’s what he meant, right?_

I pulled out a couple of tops, but my eyes weren’t on them. Instead they remained focused on the bag I tried to forget was on the floor. It was the bag that had all of the clothes that Faye had bought me over the years.

_Or maybe…_

Suddenly I found myself staring at my other bag that was now sitting on my bed. I didn’t remember grabbing it or putting it there and yet there it now sat.

I pulled out a few pieces and couldn’t help but laugh because no matter how many different articles of clothing I pulled out, they all seemed to match. Suddenly I started to wonder if Faye had planned it that way or if Tabitha had just worked her magic so that I would have a cohesive wardrobe from her store.

“Okay. Deep breath,” I coached myself.

I then closed my eyes and randomly grabbed a few articles of clothing into my hands at random. Thankfully I had enough pieces to make a complete outfit. So, I forced myself to stop trying to over think things and just got dressed for dinner.

After I had the last clasp clipped together, I turned towards the floor length mirror behind the bedroom door. For a second, I didn’t recognize myself because I looked more like Simi on any given day than I did my usual self.

 _Well, if you can’t beat them, join them._ I thought to myself as I pulled my comb through my hair to style it into Simi inspired pigtails.

 


	10. Chapter 9

I woke up to the sensation of someone’s lips pressing against my forehead. Contrary to what seems to have become popular belief, I did date while I was at University. One relationship actually got pretty serious, but we called it off just before he left to star his master’s degree out of State because neither of us saw it lasting for the long term. Plus, he was an uninitiated human, so he never really got a chance to know the real me or my true aspirations for my life, so I knew it could never work.

But he had been a generous lover. That’s why feeling someone kissing me to coax me out of my slumber didn’t unnerve me at all. It had been one of his favorite ways to start the day when I spent the night at his apartment.

“Mmm… Jesse…” I moaned as I snuggled in closer to his side.

“Jesse?! Cora, you don’t have feelings for that no good outlaw Jesse James, do you, Darlin’?!”

My eyes flew open and I was beyond shocked to see Cody lounging on the bed beside me. But even more surprising was that he wasn’t just beside me on the bed, he was under the covers with me IN the bed. After a couple of seconds his question hit me, so I flinched back replying, “What? Cody…? No…!”

“Good,” he interrupted before he silenced the rest of my increasingly more alert protests with a kiss.

At first, I relaxed into the embrace, but that only lasted for a second. Okay, maybe it was a wee bit longer than a mere second. What can I say? Forbidden fruit can be very tempting. And his lips, they were more luscious than any other fruit that had passed my lips.

Once I remembered that this was one of the biggest taboos and therefore number one prohibited activity for a Squire, I placed my hand on his shoulders and shoved him back with a little more malice than was needed. “Cody! We… we can’t.”

He flashed me a devilish grin before he leaned forward to kiss me again. I moved back and away from him as quickly as I could get my body to move. When he saw me attempting to dodge his advances so overtly, he finally did back off.

I tried not to look overly grateful as I sat up because he knew the rules as well as I did. I shouldn’t have to thank him for following them without having Acheron show up to remind us about them in his own scary… well actually more like DEADLY way. I was still in my skin-tight pajamas of a tank top and shorts, so I tried to keep myself covered by the sheets and comforter as much as possible. I know he already had gotten an eyeful the day before, but I was trying my best not to give him the wrong idea, especially after everything I had already let him do to… err… with me today.

Cody sat up with his back against the headboard. As he straightened out, the sheet slipped down his torso to reveal the expanse of the very muscular, still sun-kissed skin of his torso with is very defined pecs and abs.

 _SHIT! He isn’t wearing a shirt!_ I thought to myself as I felt my heartrate start to speed up. _Don’t think about it… FUCK… DON’T stare! Don’t think about it… don’t stare… don’t… SHIT!_

As it always seems to happen, the more I tried not to look at Cody, the more my eyes remained glued to his flesh… his oh so toned flesh that was slowly being revealed as he settled in his spot on the mattress. I could feel my cheeks stating to heat up when I heard him chucked lowly in the back of his throat.

He shifted on the mattress then in such a way that the covers continued to fall away from his body and pool into his lap. My gaze fell to where the blankets were no longer gathering but were falling away to expose his…

I was on my feet with my back turned towards the bed before I had any conscious thought of what I was doing. I even covered my face with both of my hands for good measure to make sure I wouldn’t be tempted to turn around and see what else was going to be revealed.

“Darlin’? Why do you look jumpier than a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory?”

“Cody? Are you naked under there?”

I could hear his bare feet hit the hardwood floor beside the other side of the bed as he answered, “Why don’t you turn around and find out for yourself, Honeycomb?”

“Please just answer the question,” I pleaded into the palms of my hands that were still completely covering my face.

He didn’t reply, at least not right away. Instead, he walked around the bed and stood in front of me. When I felt him try to pry my hands away from my face, I resisted with all my might. But, he wouldn’t be deterred. He forced my hands away from my face (I stopped fighting then because I knew that as a Dark-Hunter he could easily out muscle me and I wasn’t looking to break my wrist, hand or arm any time soon), so I kept my eyes squeezed shut tightly.

“Come on now, Darlin’. I don’t bite… Unless you ask me to.”

He then took advantage of my desire not to be hurt and pulled me into a hug against his chest. Thankfully, I felt the cloth of his cotton boxers brush against my thighs, so I finally had the answer to my previous question that he refused to answer. But, that changed nothing about our situation, so I pushed against his chest to stop him from hugging me.

But he was a persistent one, so I opened my eyes so that I could press my right palm into the center of his chest and made direct eye contact as I firmly stated, “I said ‘NO’, Cody We can’t do this… ANY of this. You know the rules.”

“But I’m an outlaw, Honeycomb. I believe rules were made to be broken.”

“And I so am not. I’m a Squire and I don’t want to break Acheron’s rules. Please don’t force me to do something that I don’t want to do.”

“Force you?” He dropped his hands to his sides and stepped back away from me. “I thought this is what you wanted. I mean all of the signs were pointed in that direction.”

“Signs? What signs?!”

He started to count them off with the fingers on his left hand. “First, you run away from home and came here. Even Faye agreed that that didn’t make a lick of sense since you could have stayed with her or one of your other friends from school with minimal questions asked. Not to mention Peltier House or your oh so good friend Fin. But no, you chose here, so I did my best to be hospitable.” I opened my mouth to defend myself and my decision, but he just continued like I hadn’t reacted at all. “Second, you’ve been dressing in frumpy sweats when you’ve come out of this room when you thought I wouldn’t be home to see you. But the night you know I’m home and cookin’ for you, you dress up in a sexy school girl outfit that rivals anything Miss Simi would wear. And third… well… look at you now. You might as well be sleeping in the buff for all that get up covers. Or rather what it doesn’t cover up, especially when you’re sauntering off to the little girls’ room and the hallway makes those clothes look non-existent in the right light.”

“What?! They… they’re not…” I cried out and looked down to see that yes, yes, they really were THAT see through. I snatched up an oversized sweatshirt that had been discarded on the floor and heatedly pulled it over my head to cover me from neck to midthigh.

Cody let out a soft groan causing me to lift my eyes up to his face. He laughed at the quizzical look on my face then replied to my silent question, “With those mile-long legs of yours, Honeycomb, that sweatshirt just adds a whole new dimension to your undeniable sexiness.”

“Well, I’m not trying to look sexy,” I retorted with an annoyed bite. “I’m trying to cover up, so you’ll listen to what I need to say to you!”

I stalked around where he was standing to the chairs that my bags were sitting on to find a pair of pants. The bagger the better right now.

I noticed that Cody hadn’t really moved from his spot, so I called out over my shoulder, “You should put on some pants… and a shirt too while you’re at it!”

He didn’t move a muscle, so after I had pulled on a pair of sweat pants over my sleep shorts, I turned around to glare at him. He honestly looked completely surprised at how angry I was in the moment, but for some reason that still didn’t get him moving at all.

“You ain’t foolin’ around, are you, Honeycomb? You really don’t wanna have a little bit of fun together while we’re in our birthday suits.”

“No, Cody, I don’t If you weren’t a Dark-Hunter or if I wasn’t a Squire, then maybe…” I paused there and shook my head vigorously. “But all those what ifs don’t matter. We ARE, so we CAN’T.”

“But what about…?”

“I’m sorry if you misread my actions,” I interrupted without taking any of the edge out of my tone. “These really are just my pajamas. I wasn’t wearing them to flirt with you. Just like my outfit yesterday, they were just clothes. GODS! This is why I NEVER wear them! People just… And… WHATEVER! As for me coming here… Well… I needed time to think. My mom would have come and found me if I went to any of those other places. You gave Ash explicit instructions to keep this place on the down-low, so I know he wouldn’t suggest here unless you okayed it. Plus… plus…” I sniffled in a breath and tried to will away my tears, but they hit me hard and fast as I continued, “Plus, I thought you were my friend and that you would help me. But, I get it. I’m just a girl to you and… and…”

“No, Darlin’, it ain’t that at all.”

He walked towards me as he spoke and then reached out to try to hug me again, but I stepped back and held my hands out to stop him. “Don’t, Cody. DON’T touch me.”

“Hey now. I was wrong, Darlin’. I just want to help to ease away those tears fallin’ from your eyes. I tears me up to see you cry, especially knowing it’s from somethin’ I said.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it,” I retorted as I turned around and started shoving the few pieces of clothing I had left strewn about on the floor into my bags. “At least not anymore, anyways.”

“Cora? What…? What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” I replied as I zipped my bags up on the end of the bed. “I’m leaving.”

“Leaving? Where will you go?”

I hefted my bags onto my shoulders and paused at the doorway briefly to answer, “You’re right. I have friends. I shouldn’t have burdened a Dark-Hunter with my petty problems. I’ll let you know when I’ve started resuming my Squire duties in case I can be of any assistance to you with anything.”

“Cora-Lee, please don’t… don’t leave like this, Darlin’.”

“I can’t… shouldn’t be here.” I stopped and took in a deep, calming breath. “I’m not mad at you or anything Cody, but you’re right. There are a lot of places that are much more appropriate for me to stay right now.”

At first, he looked like he was going to argue with me, but then he paused to give my words some thought. “Alright, I see your point. But, Miss Cora? If you find yourself stranded again, my door is always open, Y’hear?”

“Thanks Cody. And thanks for putting up with me these last four days.”

*************************************************************************************

“Has she at least eaten since she’s been here?” Parker whispered to Aimee while they both kept their eyes fixed on Eve.

The elder Squire was sitting at a table for two facing the front entrance of the pub. Her table was in the perfect spot to watch the entire dining room, but it was the main entrance that held the majority of her attention. Every time the door opened, she would perk up with expectation and then looked so deflated that Parker and Aimee wanted to weep when the person who entered Sanctuary wasn’t the on Eve was wanting or hoping for them to be.

“I don’t know, I’ve been in the office most of the day. Serre?” Her brother turned towards Aimee with a questioning look on his face. “Has Eve eaten at all today?”

He shrugged replying, “I brought out her order to her a little while ago, but I can’t say for sure if she’s touched it at all. Want me to go over there and check?”

“No, that’s okay. Thanks anyways, _Cher_.”

He just shrugged then continued into the kitchen to retrieve the orders that were waiting for him to deliver. The two women shared a look and then Parker offered, “I’ll go over.”

Aimee smiled and asked, “Why don’t I join you?”

They both then wound their way toward Eve’s table. Since they were both expecting mothers of multiples, it took them both a bit longer then most to maneuver their way through the busy restaurant to arrive at their destination.

By the time they were both just a couple of tables away from hers, Eve jumped to her feet and sprinted towards the door. The two mothers-to-be shared another look of bewilderment and then turned their attention to the entrance. Eve was now dragging a familiar face to her table, so Aimee contacted Serre telepathically to get him to check in on their new guest to see what they wanted to order as she and Parker retreated to her office.

Eve didn’t give Fin a chance to object before she forcefully dragged him back to her table. He thought about resisting for a second, but instantly thought better of it. If he didn’t just follow her, he would cause a scene and her ‘dragging’ him to her table was enough of a spectacle, so he didn’t want to do anything that would make it worse.

Once they were both seated, Eve shifted her hold on Fin’s forearm and frantically asked, “Please tell me that you’ve heard from her. Please?”

He looked down at where her fingers were digging into his flesh and did everything he could to give off an air of calm and understanding. A small smile spread across his face when he felt her grip ease up, even though she didn’t seem to want to let go of his arm completely.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t heard a word from her. But…”

“But it’s been four days, Fin. FOUR whole days! And we’re going into the fifth! You’re one of her best friends. I know I was unsure about her being friends with you, but I’ll admit it now. You two ARE close friends. Why wouldn’t she call you right now?”

“I don’t know, Mrs. Christianson. I really don’t because I’m worried about her too. But she’s smart and capable, so I have faith that she’s alright. Plus, I’ve heard that she’s been contacting Faye to check in, so that’s definitely a good sign, right?”

“Yeah, I guess…” She stopped there to smile to herself. “I mean… yes, you’re right. But, I honestly won’t feel okay until I’ve talked to her myself and heard her voice.

“And I don’t think anyone would fault you or think any different of you because of that. I know I don’t because I share that sentiment with you.”

“I know you do, Fin. You have been such a great friend to her over these last few years. I promise, the next time Kyrian or anyone else tries to disparage your name, I’ll defend you just like my Cora has been every time they’ve been so ugly about you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that at all, Mrs.…”

“Eve. Please, call me Eve.”

“Alright… Eve. Please don’t worry about that, especially right now. I don’t expect that anyone will be able to change their opinions of me, especially after all these years, so there’s no reason for you to waste your energy on all of that.”

“But that doesn’t mean that I can’t try.”

“No, I guess it doesn’t.”

She shared a smile with him briefly before her face fell and she looked like she might burst into tears again. “So, you have no idea where my baby might be right now?”

“Eve,” he started sympathetically as he reached over to squeeze her hand “I have a couple of hunches…”

“What? Where…? Where are they? Who do you think she’s with?”

“Eve… Eve…” He chuckled softly then continued, “Now I can see where Cora gets it from. As I was saying, I have a couple of hunches, but I don’t want to get your hopes up. That’s why I haven’t shared them with you yet. I’ll be looking into a couple of my leads tonight and after that I can tell you what I’ve found out if you’d like me to.”

“Yes, please Fin! Here, I’ll…”

“I have your number already. I… I asked Acheron for it after I heard about Cora’s disappearance. I thought there was the slimmest of chances that she might end up at my house and I wanted to be able to call you to ease your mind if she did.”

“You…? Oh… Fin…”

Eve got up then and walked over to Fin’s side. He watched her in silent fascination because the look on her face had shifted once again and he wasn’t sure how to interpret what he was seeing in her expression right now.

She then leaned down and hug him around his neck and quietly said against his ear, “Thank you, Faenus. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend to my Cora.”

He barely had a chance to reciprocate her hug before Eve released him and moved back towards her seat. He was surprised to see that she was smiling and appeared to look more at ease. What shocked him even more was that he had actually appeared to have done something to help to ease her mind, even those he really wasn’t sure what it was that he had said in order to accomplish such a feat.

“Are you hungry, Fin? I can ask Serre to bring something out for you if you want. My treat.”

“Thank you for the offer, but I’ve already eaten. I should actually return to my patrols soon.”

“Return?” She questioned with genuine confusion.

“Yes, Ma’am. I was doing my usual rounds and asked Dev if you had passed by here tonight. He told me that you were inside, so I wanted to check in with you to see how you were holding up and if you had any news about Cora.”

She carefully swallowed the food she had been chewing to keep from choking before she asked, “Me? You wanted to come in and check on me?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I did. But now I should allow you to enjoy your meal in order to continue with my patrols.”

“Right… Of course!” She replied almost sadly. “Of course, you need to do your work. Than you so much for taking the time to come in to check on me.”

Fin stood up and bowed his head at her words and then turned to make his way to the back exit of the restaurant. He had already been on the street out front of Sanctuary and was hoping to find some action in the dark alley behind the establishment. He had a lot of nervous energy coursing through his veins that he really wanted to work off by beating a Daimon into oblivion. If that didn’t work, then he would try to expel any excess tension in his gym when he got home after he finished his patrols.

He barely took a step away from Eve’s side when she grabbed his wrist. He turned to question her as she said, “I’ll call you I hear any news about her.” She saw him open his mouth to reply, so she quietly added, “She left her phone at home. I assume she has your number and I’ll be able to find it there to let you know.”

“Yes, she does, Eve. And I’ll be sure to contact you if I hear anything of worth as well.”

*************************************************************************************

As he drove home a few hours before dawn would be threatening to break, Fin felt tired. Although his lack of energy had nothing to do with the Daimons he had found that night and subsequently turn into dust so that they could never ham another human soul. No, this was the kind of tired one felt when they were truly weary and emotionally drained. No one seemed to have any news about Cora’s possible whereabouts. It was almost as if she had just vanished from the face of the Earth. He was almost worried that she had, but he knew that Acheron would have been ringing every available alarm bell if that was true. He had heard how everyone had assembled when Parker had vanished and he was sure the same would happen if the situation was similar for Cora’s situation too.

If all of that hadn’t been bad enough, his night had gotten worse when he had run into Cody. He couldn’t quite place his finger on it, but there was something about the new cowboy in town that made him feel uneasy and more than a little suspicious.

But Cora had befriended him, so Fin tried to be civil to Cody. Thankfully Artemis, in all her paranoid glory, had made it so that Dark-Hunters couldn’t spend too much time together because they would drain each other’s strength. That meant Fin could keep his encounters with Cody short without looking rude. That came in handy, especially when Cody brushed off Fin’s questions about Cora with a smug, self-satisfied smirk on his face.

Fin was still questioning what that look might mean as he wound his way down his driveway. He hated that he had allowed the other hunter to get to him, but that seemed to be one of Cody’s specialties; getting under Fin’s skin, especially when it came to any subject remotely related to Cora.

But Fin had to shake it off. He HAD to, or he’d go crazy. So, he focused on the road and decided he would work his aggression out in his gym.

At least that was what he had planned to do until he saw someone sitting on his front steps. At least he was pretty sure it was a person. They were curled up in a ball on his steps and almost looked more like a pile of trash left curbside for weekly pick up than anything else.

Normally Fin always parked his vehicles in the garage, but tonight he made an exception and parked a few feet away from the front steps of his mansion and got out of his car. Whomever it was that was hunched over on his steps didn’t move at all in reaction to the sound of his car door closing, so Fin cautiously approached them.

“Umm… Excuse me…” He called out as he stepped closer to them.

 

I REMAINED CURLED up in a tight ball until I heard Fin call out, “Umm… Excuse me…”

I lifted my head then and felt a river of tears start to spill down my cheeks as I croaked out my reply of, “Fin? I… I…”

He ran to my side… No, that’s too mild a word. He sighed out a quick, “Thank the gods” before he sprinted to my side. I tried to say something but that was derailed by him crushing me into an overly tight embrace.

“Cora! I am so relieved to see you. We’ve all been so worried about you. Where…? No… No, that doesn’t matter right now. What finally brought you to my door step?”

I hugged him back just as fiercely until I felt his hold loosen. We both leaned back until we could see each other’s face. He brushed back a chunk of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear. He didn’t try to rush me to answer him in any way, but for some reason that made me even more emotional.

So, before my tears could overtake me, I said, “I… I… I have nowhere else to go.”

 Then the dam broke and I stared sobbing uncontrollably into Fin’s chest.

 

 


	11. Chapter 10

“I’m sorry Eve, I can’t tell you where she is right now, but… But I can say that I’ve seen her with my own two eyes and she’s alive and well.” I silently slipped int the kitchen while Fin was talking to someone on the phone. “I don’t know when, but…” He jumped slightly when he turned back to his coffee on the kitchen island and found me on the other side of it. “But, I’ll do that as soon as I can… Yes, I promise… Alright, but I need to go…” He laughed softly there. I had never witnessed Fin laugh like that before just now. “Yes, patrols. Alright, talk to you soon, Eve. Good night.”

I pulled a piece of bacon off the plate beside his cup of coffee. He watched me start to nibble on it as he asked, “How did you sleep today, Cora?”

“All things considered, pretty good.”

He chuckled as he watched me pull another piece of bacon towards me. “So? On the phone? Was…? Wat that…? Umm… Were you talking to my…?”

“Yes, it was your mother,” he interrupted as he reached out and gently gripped my forearm. I shook my head sadly prompting him to ask, “Cora? What…?”

“She isn’t my mother,” I quietly explained over the rest of his question.

“Cora? What did you say?” He asked as he squeezed my arm.

I realized then that I was staring at the counter and mumbling, so I forced myself to look up at him. When our eyes me, his face fell and all of the humor in his features instantly disappeared. After he placed his coffee mug on the island, he abandoned it there to move to my side. He gently turned my chin in the cup of his hand so that he could look me in the eyes more easily.

His expression softened as we stared into each other’s eyes. “Cora? What has caused this gloomy look in your eyes?”

“She isn’t my mother.”

“Cora!” I almost laughed at the scandalized tone he used. But I was feeling too numb to properly react. “Why would you say such a thing?”

“Not saying, just repeating what I was told.”

“Repeating? Wow… I think we should take our coffee out into the garden while we talk. What do you think?”

“I think… I’ll follow you.”

I picked up my oversized coffee mug that he had prepared for me and moved out a side door onto a small patio. I called this ‘The Night Garden’ because he had worked with his gardeners to ensure that all of the plants in this area of his yard were nocturnal. On the lattice that lined three of the four sides of the sitting area were fragrant angel’s trumpets. They hung down gracefully and almost looked like a cascading waterfall in the moonlight.

The patio was also lined with planter boxes that were filled with evening primrose, moonflowers and tuberose. When you sat out here on a clear night under a full moon it felt like you were sitting at the most prestigious garden tea party. He knew that I always felt more at ease when I was surrounded by vegetation, so this had quickly become my favorite places at his home. (The other was his gym but that was mostly because he had the best equipment or any type of workout you would ever want to do, all in one room.)

I let my eyes flutter closed while I took a long drink from my mug and inhaled the scent of all the flowers around me. I felt the turmoil in my soul start to settle just like my thoughts did whenever I sat out here with Fin. Which was probably why he suggested we come out here in the first place.

With my eyes still closed and a soft smile spreading across my face, I asked, “Is this one of your abilities?”

“Actually,” he started as he reached out and touched the bare flesh of my forearm. “Yes, it is.”

My eyes drifted open as I turned to look at him. “You can calm people down with a single touch.”

He slowly released my arm replying, “I can help people feel a sense of calm during a crisis, yes. But, Cora? This truly is the first time that I’ve ever used it on you, I swear.”

“I know,” I stated almost automatically. When I had my eyes fully opened and focused on Fin, I more insistently said, “I know, Fin. I’ve always felt a weird sense of calm out here in your garden, but tonight feels different. Tonight, I feel like nothing could upset me. But you did that on purpose, right?”

He gave me a shy smile as he answered, “You know me too well. So, you’ve had some time to think… Do you think you can tell me what has caused it?”

“My hiding?”

“Yes, if you don’t mind. Does it have anything to do with the information that you were merely repeating to me in the kitchen?”

I took in another slow, deep breath to take in more of the floral scents surrounding us. “Yes, it has everything to do with it.”

“I’m sorry,” he stated in a painfully sincere tone.

“It’s not your fault,” I replied with a warm smile.

“None the less, I’m very sorry someone said such ugly lies to you. Do you mind me asking who it was?”

I stared at him for a second because I wasn’t quite sure what to say next. He truly believed that someone had lied to me just to hurt me, but I knew those words were the truth. But how could I tell Fin that? How could I make him understand it wasn’t a fabrication or lie?

_Just tell him the truth._

“Fin?” I started slowly. “I wasn’t just some random person who said that to me, it was my mom who finally told me the truth.”

“Your mom? Really? Are you sure?”

His truly befuddled tone made me laugh. “Yes, Fin. I’m VERY sure.”

He blushed then asked, “Would you mind telling me what happened? Because I’m having a hard time picturing how this all went down… Because Eve has been beside herself worrying about you and where you might be right now.”

I snorted derisively and didn’t care how impolite my tone sounded when I retorted, “Yeah… right.”          

He gave me wide eyes and replied in a calm tone that he needed to patent and put up for sale, because he was the only person I knew that could sound so forceful without being patronizing, “Yes, that IS right. She has spent the last five nights at Sanctuary hoping to catch a glimpse of you.”

“What? She… she only likes going there for special occasions. Why…?”

“Because she loves you.”

“NO. She doesn’t,” I stated in a finite voice.

Fin looked shell shocked at my response. He took a second to collect himself before he asked, “How did you get here, _Cher_? What did she say to you? Can you please tell me a bit more about that?”

I tried to take in a couple of calming breathes but I ended up still letting out a quiet sob as I spoke, “It all started when I got home the day after I helped you. She was waiting for me at the door and started to lay into me about being lay for so long. I thought she was teasing me, so I started joking around with her, but then… then…”

My sobs threatened to over take me, so Fin stood up and wrapped me in a hug. Once my tears subsided and my breathing evened out, he started to step out of the embrace. I wrapped my arms around his waist because I wasn’t sure I could make it through this without his calming aura.

To his credit he didn’t continue to try to get away from me. Instead he eased himself onto the arm of the chair where I was seated and made himself comfortable. I rested my head against his side as he started to stroke my hair.

“I thought she was just joking, but then she told me that if she knew that she was going to raise a Hunter-Bunny she would have told Acheron to take me to someone else to raise me.” Fresh tears started to fall then but I somehow managed to keep my tone somewhat even as I continued. “I know everyone talks a lot of shit about our friendship, but I never thought she’d be one of them. I thought she knew how committed to being a Squire I am and that you’ve been instrumental in helping me train. I never… never thought she’d call me a whore for doing the job I was born to do.”

“Your mother?” He questioned. “Eve Christianson?”

“Yes, her,” I replied trying not to sound overly exasperated.

“I’m sorry Cora, I’m not trying to frustrate you, but that doesn’t sound like the woman I spoke to last night.”

“Okay, this is where I have to ask you to explain.”

“While I was doing my patrols las night I ended up speaking with Dev. He mentioned that Eve had been spending her evenings there, so I went in to check on her. She practically dragged me to her table and she was almost in tears when we spoke. She truly did look like she was sick with worry about you.”

“I don’t know why she would be, not after what she said to me.”

“I know, that’s why it doesn’t make any sense.” He paused there and squatted down in front of me so that we could look each other in the eyes while we spoke. “I was thinking maybe you should talk to Acheron and find out if what she said is true.”

“I don’t know. What difference would it make?”

“Well, if it isn’t true then maybe there’s something else going on.”

“Something…? Are you saying you think that someone was impersonating my mom? Why would someone do that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. All I can say for certain is that what you’ve described sounds kind of like a possession to me. Demons don’t really seem to ever have a motive, they just like to cause chaos.”

I stared down at him while I gave his words some thought. The person I had been speaking with sounded like a stranger to me, but I thought it had been wishful thinking. I had never thought I’d ever hear my mother say such hurtful things, especially not to me, so I had tried to convince myself it wasn’t her. But, if Fin was thinking the same thing then maybe it wasn’t such a crazy thought after all.

Fin’s face contorted into one of questioning horror when he saw me start to break down in tears again. Thankfully he didn’t say anything, nor did he try to get me to speak. Instead he stood up and wrapped me in a tight hug. It didn’t take long after that I started to feel myself calm down.

As I reciprocated his hug I finally said, “I thought the idea of her being possessed was too ludicrous, so I didn’t say anything. But if you think it might be true, maybe it isn’t so crazy.”

“Because it isn’t. So? Does that mean…?”

I pushed out of his embrace so that I could look up into his face when I answered, “Yes, please call Acheron.”

*************************************************************************************

After he made the call, Fin left the house to do his nightly patrols. We didn’t really discuss that part at all and yet we seemed to have silently come to the consensus that this was something that I needed to do on my own. But as he left he told me no less than three times to call him if I needed him to come home, to which I promised I would each time he repeated the instructions.

While I waited for Acheron to arrive, I curled up on Fin’s couch and tried to relax. Key word there is ‘tried’. I couldn’t get my thoughts to slow down or turn off. I knew that the conflict I was having with my mother was causing this turmoil for me now, but knowing that fact and knowing what to do with that information were two completely different things.

Even though Fin spent little to none of his waking hours at his house, he still paid for all of the specialty and movie networks. I had asked him about that once because it had seemed like such a waste to me. He replied that he never knew who he might be expected to entertain at any given time. Since e couldn’t go outside when the sun was out, he wanted to make sure he had something to keep his guests occupied, especially if they were human.

Well today I was thankful for that logic. That meant I had a bunch of channels from which I could choose to watch. But all that I really ended up doing was flipping through the channels without really paying attention to any of the shows that flickered on the screen. Instead, I just kept thinking about Fin’s theory of my mother being possessed and what that could mean for the veracity of the information said to me.

_If she was possessed then the dome was probably lying, right? He said they like to cause turmoil for no reason. What better way to screw with my had is there then…?_

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of the doorbell chiming. I stared at the TV for a couple of breaths before I turned it off and forced myself to get off the couch. I don’t know why I was feeling so reluctant to open the door because at least I’d find out the truth from Ash, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

It felt like it took me an eternity to get to the door. In that time, I somehow managed to work myself up a bit. I could feel tears gathering in the corners of my eyes, so I paused with my hand on the door’s handle while I tried to will them away.

All of that must have taken longer than I had thought it would because I was started out of the breathing exercises Fin had taught me by the sound of he doorbell. Ash was one of the most patient people I had ever met, so it took a bit to make him show some form of annoyance. The fact that I had done that just by taking too long to answer the door seemed really funny to me.

A bought of laughter started to bubble up through my chest as I started to open the door. I guess it would be better to be laughing than crying while I talked with my boss.

Once I had the door open, Ash tuned back to face me. There were so many things about him that fascinated me; his height, his beauty and his silver swirling eyes to name a few. But what had me the most transfixed when I was near him was the undeniable aura of sadness I could feel around him. Outwardly, he could look happy and content, especially when he was with his wife and children, but that sadness was always there. I asked my mom about it once when I was younger, and she had no idea what I was talking about. I seemed to be the only one who could sense it.

He smiled down at me, but before he could speak, I let out a loud sob and practically fell forward into his chest. Poor Ash, he had no idea why I was such a mess, but he still took it all in stride. Without a moment’s hesitation, he wrapped his arms around me and cradled me against his body. Although everything he was saying and doing was quite comforting, I son found myself crying uncontrollably in his arms.

 

 


	12. Chapter 11

Much like I had earlier that night, I somehow ended up in the night garden with my hands wrapped around a mug of tea. I held it up to my nose while my eyes remained shut as I took a deep breath. I don’t know which scent made me smile more, that of the flowers in the garden or the fruity, floral scent of the liquid in my mug. Then again, maybe it was a mixture of the two that did it.

The sound of Acheron chuckling caused my eyes quickly fly open. My cheeks got hot as I sheepishly said, “I’m sorry. I… I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight. I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Cora, nothing is wrong with you,” he countered in a loving, forceful tone that I always associated with him. “Fin told me a little about what happened, so it’s more than understandable that you’re upset. He also told me you had some questions but take your time. You don’t have to rush, okay?”

“Okay,” I whispered. I needed to collect my thoughts, so I sipped my tea while I tried to do that. “Is…? Is it true?”

He stared at me for a second before he asked, “I’m sorry… Is what true?”

“What my… What Mrs. Chris… What Eve said. Is it true that I’m adopted?”

“Not in the strictest sense.” I gave him an unfriendly look, so he held up his hands in a sign of surrender as he continued, “I mean it wasn’t that formal. We just put their names on the birth certificate and they raise you as if they were your biological parents.”

“So… they really aren’t?”

“No, I’m sorry they aren’t. At least no biologically. But I chose them because I knew that they would love you and care for you as if they were.”

“Okay. So, who are my real parents?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?”

His facial features softened as he answered, “For your safety. Your birth mother was afraid that someone might try to hurt you to get back at her or your father, which is why she asked me to help.”

“For my…? Alright, I don’t fully understand that, but we can come back to that later. Was I at least born here in New Orleans?”

Ash barked out a laugh that made me jump in my seat. “I’m sorry, but no. In fact, you aren’t actually American.”

“WHAT?! Where was I…? Oh right, you can’t say, can you?” He simply shook his head with a frown on his face. “Alright, we’ll come back to that later then too. So, what did Fin tell you about me staying with him?”

“He said that you had some kind of falling out with your Mom and that you needed some time to yourself. When I asked what caused the falling out, he said it wasn’t his place to tell. But now I can only assume that it has something to do with your maternity?”

“Partially. I mean it sucked to hear that I’m adopted, but the w-w-way sh-sh-she t-t-told me w-w-was the w-w-worst,” I replied through stuttered breaths, so I wouldn’t break down in tears.

“Cora,” he started as he reached out to squeeze my knees. “I really hate to have to ask this, but can you tell me what she said that would bring you to tears just thinking about it?”

I took a couple of long drinks from my mug to calm myself down before I tried to answer him. Once I thought that I could talk again, I turned to face him. He was keeping his expression carefully neutral, which made it harder for me to maintain my composure for some reason.

I turned my attention instead to the flowers in the planter in front o f me and said to them, “She was waiting for me in the foyer when I got home from helping Cody and Fin. She told me you’d take away my Squire title if you ever caught me screwing around with a Dark-Hunter. And then… then she… she said that if she knew she’d be raising a slut, Hunter-Bunny that she would have told you to take me to someone else to raise.”

“She didn’t really say all of that, did she?”

“That’s pretty much the gist of it. I… I could tell you what she said word for word if…?”

“No, that’s okay. But those names…?”

“THOSE are direct quotes.”

“Cora, no. Eve would never call you that.”

I turned just my eyes towards his shocked looking face. “Hate to break it to you, Bossman, but she did. That’s why I packed up everything and left that night without leaving a note.” I took in a deep breath and then forced myself to urn and look at him to say, “But that also brings me to another thing Fin brought up. Could my mom have been possessed when she said all of that?”

“Normally I would say that that is a strong possibility, but for this? No, I don’t think that’s the case.”

“You don’t? W-why not?”

He stood and moved to sit on the edge of the planter in front of me. I know he did it so that he could watch my expressions while we spoke, but I really wished that he didn’t do it. It wasn’t that I held any ill-will against him, I just really didn’t want him to see how vulnerable I was right then. Which was stupid because he had known me my whole life, since birth apparently, so there really wasn’t much he didn’t know about me.

“Fin isn’t the only one who has spoken to your mother at Sanctuary.” Acheron smiled softer at how wide my eyes grew as questions formed in my mind. “She and I had dinner together the night before last. Well, at least we tried to, but her lack of appetite seriously rivalled mine, so we mostly just talked.”

That caused me to laugh involuntarily. None of us wanted him to know, but a lot of us had discussed on more than one occasion how we had never witnessed Ash eating. Whenever there were get togethers (like Thanksgiving at Sanctuary) you would see him load up a plate, but it always went into Simi’s stomach. We all thought our conversations were discrete but seeing the look on Ash’s face now told me I might be wrong.

“Anyway. While we sat at a table together, she told me all about how she was having a hard time sleeping and eating because she has been worried sick about you and if you were safe. She even tried getting a hold of your father to have him come home to try to find you.”

“And that’s why you think she wasn’t possessed?”

“Partially. She didn’t seem to have any recollection of the conversation you just told me about. Most people I’ve spoke to after a possession have said that it was as if they had no control over their actions. They could hear themselves saying and see themselves doing unspeakable things, but they were helpless to stop it. You mother… Eve… her last memory of you is kissing you goodnight before she went to bed while you were watching ‘Gilmore Girls’… nearly two weeks ago.”

“Or so she says.”

“Cora?”

“You know what she was great at before she had…?” I stopped to swallow a sob. “She and Dad have always bragged about how good she was… I mean IS at talking her way out of any situation. Maybe that’s all she’s doing now to save face, so that she can keep from pissing people like you off.”

“Cora, I really don’t think that’s true.”

“But you can’t say for certain that it’s not. And I can’t… I can’t go back to that townhouse until I know more…”

When I trailed off, he reached forward to squeeze my knee. “What do you want to know?”

 _Good question,_ I thought to myself.

When I finally looked up into his face, it was to tell him that I wasn’t sure, but then our eyes locked. I don’t know what it was, but everything just sort of clicked into place in my head. The answer was suddenly just there on the top of my tongue and I knew he would understand.

“I want to know who I am. Everything I have, my clothes, my truck… my everything… I don’t know if I even like them or if I think I do because that’s what’s expected of me. I just… I need some time to think and see if I can find me… Find what’s really in my heart, y’know?”

He smiled softly then answered, “Actually, yes, I do understand that completely. And I think I might be able to help you with that.”

“You do?” I asked as tears of relief started to surface.

“I do. In fact, I’ve had a job opportunity come up that I was going to offer to you before all of this started.” I opened my mouth to protest because I knew it would be Squire related, but he wouldn’t let me get a word out. “Before you object, it’s as a Dorian Squire, so you’ll have plenty of time to do some soul searching.”

I stared at him for a second, fully intending on telling him no, but then I heard myself ask, “You promise?”

“I swear to you, it’s true. I’ve even secured a cabin on a lake for you to stay in while you’re there. Although I don’t know if it will be warm enough to swim in the lake this time of year.”

“That doesn’t matter,” I interjected. “When…? How long…?”

“Whenever you are packed and ready to go, Otto has arranged for a private charter to fly you there. Leo has arranged for a car, wallet full of credit cards and a new cell phone to be waiting for you once you land.”

“Seattle?”

“Not quite, but it is the closest big city. So, what do you think?”

“Will anyone know where I am?”

“Only if you want them to.”

I smiled softly at the tone he used. He knew I didn’t want to be fighting with the woman who raised me, but he also understood my need for solitude. Because of that he would leave all of those decisions up to me, even when he disagreed with my beliefs.

“I guess there’s worse places to get back to nature.”

He nodded and didn’t acknowledge the tears that had silently started to fall down my cheeks. Instead he stood up and passed me a business card. I stared at it dumbly before I raised my hand to tentatively take it from him.

“Call that number when you are packed and ready to go. They’ll send a car to pick you up and we already have the plane on standby.”

I sniffled in a breath then quietly said, “Thanks Acheron.”

He stared down at me as his whole facial expression softened. “I know they both love you immensely, so I will be looking further into what happened to find out the truth. I promise, we will get to the bottom of this.”

“If anyone can do it, I know it’s you.” I stood up then to lessen our height difference. I wanted to hug him. But that felt kind of awkward to do. I instead offered him my hand and forearm in the fashion Fin had shown me was the custom when he was alive. Ash recognized it for what it was and clasped my forearm tightly. While I did the same to him. “I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done and will do for me. But can I be so bold as to ask you for a favor?”

“Of course, you can Cora.”

“Can I be the one to tell Fin that I’m leaving? I just… I feel like it would be really shitty for him to find out any other way, y’know?”

“Of course, I completely understand. He should be in the Quarter right…”

“No!” I interrupted. “I mean, no, but thank you. I don’t want to interrupt him while he’s patrolling. I’ll… uhh… Plus, I need some time to figure out what to say before he gets home.”

Acheron gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher, but he hadn’t let go of my elbow, so I couldn’t move away from him. Instead, I just squirmed until he said, “Don’t forget that you can call me, day or night, if you need someone to talk to about anything.”

“Ash, you have your hands full with the Dark-Hunters, you don’t need to waste your energy on me.”

“You aren’t a waste of my energy, Cora,” he replied in his ‘don’t argue with me’ tone. “Call me if you need to talk, especially once you’re in the Pacific Northwest, understood?”

“Yes, Sir,” I replied quietly. He gently shook my arm, so I looked up into his eyes and said, “I promise I WILL call you, especially if I need someone to talk to. But right now, I think I just need some time alone to get my thoughts and feelings figured out.”

“I can more than understand that sentiment. I hope your time away gives you the time you need to find that peace of mind.”

I don’t know what it was, but there was something in Ash’s voice that made me do something impulsive. I surged up onto my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around Acheron’s neck as I buried my face into his chest and cried out, “Thank you Acheron! I hope so too.”

*************************************************************************************

After I finished packing, I found myself in Fin’s in-house gym. We had worked out together on numerous occasions and he was the one person who had made me enjoy sparring with a punching bag or one of his dummies when a living being wasn’t available for me to train with for whatever reason.

That was where Fin found me after he had finished his patrols for the night. Despite my protests, Ash had found Fin in the French Quarter and told him it would be to his benefit for him to get home sooner than later. Unfortunately, that meant that I was just starting to ‘work the bag’ by the time he got home. In all honesty, I thought I would have more time to workout before he returned, so I was kind of surprised when I heard him chuckle from the area by the door.

I spared a glance in his direction but continued my work out without saying anything to him. He quickly took the hint and made his approach towards me. I’m not sure what was really on his mind, but I’m sure he didn’t mean to almost shout out, “You’re still dropping your left elbow, Core. That’s such a tell when…”

Me landing a perfect left hook, upper-cut silenced the rest of his critique. I couldn’t help but to huff out a laugh as I hugged the bag while I took in his shocked expression.

He quickly held up his hands and said, “I stand corrected. You definitely aren’t telegraphing your punches as much anymore.”

“Thanks,” I huffed out as I stared to unlace my boxing gloves.

He moved to my side and helped me out of my gloves. To the uninitiated it would look like he was taking over, but this was just a part of our well-oiled machine. He knew I had issues putting on and taking off the boxing gloves he suggested I use, I was more than happy to watch him slip them off my hand and place them with rest of his equipment.

I watched him in silence while I continued to struggle to find the words I needed to tell him what was happening with me. He must have known that something was up because he really took his time sitting the gloves I had been using down on a shelf with the rest of the ones that he owned. Although I wanted to say something to ease his mind, instead I just watched him move in silence. I didn’t want to lie to him, so silence felt like the best alternative right now.

After he finished carefully placing the gloves in their place on the shelf, Fin turned around and looked like he was going to say something to me. But I didn’t let him speak. Instead, I gripped him by the cheeks and pulled his face down to mine so that I could kiss him on the lips. I could tell that took him by surprise because he remained completely immobile for a couple of seconds. Then just as I was about to release him, I felt him start to kiss me back. As soon as I felt his mouth open to pull my tongue into his mouth, I relinquished all control to him to set the pace of our kisses.

After what felt like hours, Fin leaned out of our embrace so that we could catch our breath. He gave me a lazy smile at he tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear that had fallen out of my bun while I was working out.

“That’s an… interesting welcome home,” he finally commented with the same lazy smile.

He had started to stroke my cheek, so I didn’t attempt to move at all as I declared, “I love you, Fin.”

That froze him completely in his spot. He looked a little shell-shocked, but that did nothing to dissuade me.

“And by that, I mean I’m IN love with you,” I tried to clarify for some unknown reason.

 He stared at me with wild eyes as he stuttered out, “Cora, I… I… I don’t…”

“You don’t have to say anything,” I interrupted him as I silenced him by placing two fingers against his lips. “I just want you to know that so that you won’t take this the wrong way.”

He scowled and just looked a question at me.

I chuckled softly then continued, “Sorry Fin, that didn’t totally make sense. But here it goes… I’m leaving New Orleans…”

“Leaving? When…? Where…?”

I started to ease out of his arms so that it would be easier to see his face while I made my confession to him. He seemed so confused and awestruck that he did nothing to try to stop myself from putting some physical distance between both of us.

“The car should be here at sunrise to take me to the airport. Otto has arranged for a chartered jet to take me to Seattle once I get to the airport.”

“Seattle? Oh… right… That means…”

“Ash offered me one of the many Dorean Squire spots that have become available with the increased Daimon activity in the Pacific Northwest. He’s also found me a cabin on a lake where I can stay while I’m working up there.”

“That sounds like your slice of paradise.”

“It does, doesn’t it? Ash said he would continue to look into what’s going on with my mom while I take some time to collect my thoughts.”

“Away from here?”

The sound of sheer anguish in his tone utterly crushed me. I knew he wasn’t trying to guilt trip me, but I felt guilty nonetheless.

“Yes, we both thought it’d be best to put some distance between me and… her. He doesn’t think that she was possessed, which actually worries me even more. I mean, what could impersonate my mom and why? Why would someone want to do that?”

“To mess with your head?” He offered.

“Maybe. But they didn’t lie about the Christianson’s not being my real parents. Ash confirmed that much. But before you ask, I don’t now who my real parents are. He won’t tell me that yet.”

“Cora, I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t… Please? I… I don’t want to cry again.”

“Which is why you got out the boxing gloves,” he replied with an audible smile.

“Exactly. But Fin, I really want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for your friendship. Especially over the last couple of days. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t let me stay here.”

“You would have figured something out. You’re too resourceful not to,” he said as he took a couple of steps closer to me. “And back to how you started this conversation…” He pulled me against his chest and kissed me breathless again. “I love you too.”

*************************************************************************************

“Miss Christianson?”

“Cora. Please, call me Cora,” I replied so automatically that it almost sounded rude.

“Alright, Miss Cora. Are you ready to go?”

I stared out the back window of the Town Car the Squire Council had sent to take me to the airport at Fin’s home. The sun was high in the sky, so I was able to see details on it that normally were obscured in the twilight hours. That’s when the first tears started to emerge in my eyes.

Before they could fully form, I turned away from the window and forced myself to take in a few slow deep breaths.

“Yes. Yes, I’m ready to leave.”

 

 


	13. Chapter 12

I tried to stretch out before I opened my eyes to start my day, but I quickly realized that I couldn’t move my arms. Or rather ARM, my right arm was pinned in its place. My left hand immediately ran its palm along my right arm to blindly investigate why I couldn’t move it. I was almost afraid to find out, so I took longer than it should have for my palm to find the metal shackle wrapped tightly around my right wrist.

Yes, that’s right. I could feel a medieval styled shackle around my wrist, not just a simple hand cuff. Who in their right mind used shackles nowadays? Then again, who abducted a Squire who had pledged their allegiance to the goddess Artemis? Psychopaths, that’s who.

Mercifully it felt like my legs were free, so I pulled them under myself so that I could sit up. The floor I was on hadn’t been comfortable while laying down and it didn’t feel any better sitting up. And since the room where I woke up was pitch black, I was happy to find any small amount of comfort right now.

I leaned against whatever I was now attached to and tried to investigate what it was with my free hand. It was very textured, but I couldn’t figure out what it might be made of or what the structure actually might be. For a minute I thought it was made of stone, but then on second thought whatever it was didn’t feel quite that smooth either. 

_ What is this made…? _

“Oh good, you’re finally awake,” a deeply masculine voice interrupted my thoughts as the room filled with light.

Instinctively, I buried my face into the crook of my arm as the lights came on because I knew they would blind me. He chuckled at that action. No, wait that isn’t the right word to describe what I just heard. But then again, I couldn’t come up with a better term for what I heard be emitted from a very muscular man who managed to make long, black, curly hair look utterly macho and intimidating in an Acheron-scary way.

“It’s fire light. Your puny human eyes should be able to hand it,” I heard him say with a sneer.

I slowly lowered my arm and gasped out an involuntary breath. Sure it was unnerving to see how close he was to me right now, but that wasn’t what had startled me. No, it was the throne made of what looked like human skulls and bones where he was no seated and to which I was shackled to with an honest to the gods medieval styled device that had me so awed.

The horrified look on my face must have amused him because he once again chortled before adding, “That is exactly what I expect as a reaction when someone sees my throne. Does that mean you don’t like it, Little Girl?”

“No, it’s not that,” I replied honestly. “It’s just… well… everything I had come up with in my mind’s eye pales in comparison to the real thing. This…? Well… I’m guessing they’re the bones of your enemies, right?”

He just stared at me in a dumbfounded silence, so I continued in a too quick to sound like I was at ease tone, “That just makes it even cooler. I’m sorry. I’ve always had an affinity towards skulls, but they freak out my mom… well… not that she’s my real mom, but she IS the woman who raised me so I tried to be polite and honor her wishes by not making them a prominent…”

“ **ENOUGH!** ” He shouted as he stood up from his throne.

I tried to shrink away from him, but that just made me hug the side of his throne. That effectively kept me closer to him, but he could tell that I was scared. I don’t know why but seeing my fear seemed to please him.

Oh… wait… Psychopath. That’s why my fear was entertaining him. His head tiled to one side as he towered over me and asked, “Do you really like my throne?”

“Y-yes, S-sir,” I replied earnestly, even though there was an audible stutter.

“Curious,” he commented to himself before he jutted his chin to a spot to my left. “But you must like my wife’s throne better.”

I turned my head to take in the seat made of solid gold. I didn’t mean to make any of the toilet jokes that popped into my head when it came into view. But really, could you blame me? Golden throne? 

“It’s… okay,” I replied as I turned back to face him. When I took in his shocked face, I quickly added, “But it is quite beautiful. I’m sure it doesn’t do your wife any justice. It… It just… It isn’t to my tastes, is all.”

“You’d rather have a throne made out of your enemies’ bones?”

Since it sounded like a question, I answered, “Who wouldn’t?”

“Peculiar…” He once again sounded like he was talking to himself, so I opted to remain silent. “Very peculiar.”

Instead, I just watched as he perched on his seat again and drummed his fingers on the bones on the arms of his throne. He seemed to be deep in thought, so I remained as still as possible so I wouldn’t disturb him. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was impressed or disgusted by my reaction. But I truly was hoping for impressed because I was sure it would help me to stay alive longer if that was the truth.

“So? What would your throne look like then?” He questioned without turning his head to look down at me.

“Mine?” I asked dumbly?

“Yes, YOURS!” He nearly shouted as he turned to glare at me with eyes that now had an ice blue fire in place of his irises. 

I once again made a futile attempt to increase the distance between us as I answered, “I’d want something comfortable… and… not too showy. Probably wood or wicker with a really plush cushion to sit on. I’m sorry… I’ve never thought about it… Uhh… having a throne, so that’s the best I can come up with off the top of my head.”

“No, no, that’s alright,” he answered in a placating tone. “That was a pretty good answer. Now, another question… Do you know who I am?”

I looked at his throne and then the one to my left before I let my eyes wander around the room. No, not ‘room’. This was a dungeon. At least ‘dungeon’ was the best word my brain could use to describe where I found myself right now.

“from what I’ve learned about our culture, I would say that chair over there belongs to Persephone, which in turn would make you Hades?” (Yes, I made it a question because I really was trying not to upset him.)

“Your ‘culture’?” He asked without acknowledging anything else I had said.

“Yes, Sir. I grew up in a family who has pledged their allegiance to the gods on Olympus.”

“You don’t worship the carpenter?”

Again he sounded like he was talking to himself, but this time I felt obliged to answer. “No, Sir. None of my ancestors have witnessed any miracles to warrant any faith in him, but they’ve… I mean, I’ve been able to interact with some of the gods from Olympus, so I always found it easier to believe in them.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Plus… Simi has told me about visiting here and… well…”

“Well what?”

“Well… She really needs to learn some more adjectives. This isn’t quite what I would have pictured from her stories. But again, hers and other people’s stories have just helped to solidify my faith.”

“Oh really?” he asked as he stood up again to stare down at me.

This time I didn’t move. My fear seemed to only amuse him, so I wanted to try to be brave. Of course, I didn’t feel anything close to that emotion, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to fake it. Fin had told me that most situations in life were about appearances. You just had to show your foes a brave face, you didn’t have to actually feel it to be convincing.

“You don’t appear to be afraid of me anymore,” he commented as he peered down at me with a pensive look.

“I’m sorry.”

It came out sounding more like a question than a statement. That made him startle slightly in his spot.

Once he regained his composure, he tilted his head to the side and stared down at me, like a predator would while considering when to attack its prey, as he asked, “Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

“I’m terrified of you,” I replied immediately and with complete honesty. He gave me a hard look so I added, “I AM. I swear it. This… What you’re seeing right now is just a façade. From what I can tell I’m not dead because I’m not wonder the shores of the river Acheron for Charon to ferry me to my final destination, so I can pretend to be brave. But I swear to you, I’m shitting bricks right now.”

His eyebrows raised so high in surprise that they almost disappeared into his hair line. I, of course, misread his expression and immediately tried to explain myself. 

“By that I mean…”

“I know what you meant. I understand modern American idioms… I’m just surprised you would say something so crass to me.”

“Oh… Well… You seem like the type of god who appreciates honesty, so that’s what I’m trying to give you. I sincerely apologize if I have offended you in any way.”

“No, I’m not offended. It would make this easier if I did find you offensive.”

“Make what easier?” I questioned as I felt my heartrate start to speed up.

He reached out and tapped my forehead. That’s when everything went black again as I fell completely unconscious.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The silence was almost deafening once Cora was knocked out cold. Usually someone who had been forced to visit the Underworld turned into a blubbering mess, but not Cora. No, she saw it as a challenge to prove herself. She was the only one who knew that she was only trying to prove that she could put her teachings into practice was herself. No one ever said such a thing out loud, so properly demonstrating it was nearly impossible.

But all that mattered right now was that Cora was silent. She was a very likeable person who could endear herself to practically everyone and she was well on the way to nearly accomplishing that. The more she spoke, the more her abductor wanted to hear. Since she wasn’t a sniveling, cowering mess, she needed to be stopped or this abduction plan might get derailed.

_ You certainly can put on a brave face, Little Girl _ , her captor thought as they hovered over her lifeless looking body. _But it isn’t quite good enough. Now, you just stay like that and we’ll get started on phase two very, very shortly_.

If Cora was still awake, she would have been a witness to her captor carefully unlatching the shackle around her right wrist. Sure it wasn’t a necessary task to complete before Cora was teleported and yet they made sure to complete it all the same. There are a lot of menial tasks that each of us complete everyday out of habit or perceived need, which is what was happening right then.

Plus, Cora’s captor really didn’t think that she was worth the effort, magic and/or ability speaking wise. If they didn’t have to expel that extra energy on her, then they would be perfectly happy. But teleporting her was an absolute necessity, which was the only reason it was being done.


	14. Chapter 13

This time when I woke up, I was slow to show any signs of my being alert. Sure, Hades was the god of death and the reigning king of our version of Hell, but I stupidly thought I could fool him. He had said something about ‘it’ being easier if he found me offensive. Maybe if he thought that I was still out like a light, then maybe he would slip up and talk about what ‘it’ was.

MAYBE.

I almost laughed at how ludicrous my internal dialogue had become. Who in the name of Zeus did I think I was?

 _You’re an idiot_ , I thought to myself as I tried to settle my breathing so that I wouldn’t start to hyperventilate.

At least this time I found myself laying on something more comfortable. Well… relatively speaking. It wasn’t the memory foam mattress I had at home, but it sure did beat the cold stone floor of Hades’ throne room.

But much like when I awoke in the Underworld, I couldn’t tell where I was right now. The texture of my new ‘bed’ did nothing to help me either. In order to figure out where I was, I would have to open my eyes.

I was just about to let out a heavy sigh of exasperation, but it was interrupted by a now familiar and cringe inducing, masculine chuckle.

“I knew you were conscious a few minutes ago, so go ahead and open your eyes.”

This time I did let out a sigh. If it was of relief or resignation, that’s still up for debate. As soon as I opened my eyes, I slammed them shut just as fast. Unlike the last time he had told me to prove that I was awake, I wasn’t in a room and it wasn’t lit by firelight.

No, the heat I felt on my face was that of the sun. After spending who knows how long in a dungeon, it felt like I was looking directly into the sun with binoculars when I opened my eyes. It was so bright that it was borderline painful.

That was yet another thing that made him laugh at me. Who knew I could be so humorous?

He didn’t say anything else, but I could tell that the blinding light had dimmed somewhat.

_Does Hades have the ability to dim the sun?_

Tentatively I opened my eyes to find the Greek god of the Underworld hovering over me. Contrary to my last thought, the sun was still high in the sky and as annoyingly bright as it had been previously. Hades had just taken a couple of steps to the side and closer to me in an attempt to use his shadow to dim the brightness.

I stared up at him and suddenly felt very small. There weren’t many people who could make me feel that way. But then again, Hades wasn’t just some mere mortal either.

“Thank you.” Yeah, it just came out. I would have like to have come up with something more eloquent, but there you have it.

He did the head tilt thing again as he asked, “Why are you thanking me?”

“F-for blocking out the s-sun,” I answered with a stutter.

Again, he looked like he was confused or shocked by what I said. To be completely honest, I was too. I still wasn’t sure that was the reason I had thanked him, so I wasn’t sure how that explanation had come out.

“Oh… well… You’re welcome… I guess.”

He just stared down at me as I sat up. I couldn’t tell where we were right now, other than the fact that we were outside in a garden. None of the vegetation looked familiar. But then again, I was just sitting on some grass behind a bush, so I really couldn’t see much of anything around me. The bush though, it had flowers that I had never seen before in real life or in books. They looked like miniature roses that had a marbled coloring of indigo blue and bubblegum pink.

They were beautiful. No, they were better than beautiful, but stunning didn’t quite do them justice. I reached out to touch one of them just to make sure that they were real, but Hades quickly smacked my hand away, hard.

“Don’t touch those,” he practically spat out at me with a lot of heat in his tone.

I cradled my hand against my chest and tried not rub some circulation back into without making it obvious. If I had any doubts (not that I really did) that the man before me was a god, I could definitely tell he was now. Wow could his punch pack a wallop. And that was when he didn’t seem to be trying to hurt me.

“I’m sorry. They’re just so… I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just don’t move,” he retorted with an animalistic snarl.

“I wasn’t…”

“SHH…” He hissed as something in the distance caught his attention.

I bit my now trembling lip to force myself to stay quiet. So far, he had only hurt me once and that without any malice or intent to actually harm, so I really didn’t want to see what he could and would do if he was putting effort into intentionally try to hurt me or kill me.

An involuntary shudder ran through my body at that thought. If he wanted me dead, he wouldn’t have to try very hard at all. Actually, it would take zero effort. One touch or one thought could send me to the Underworld. That definitely was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

I opened my mouth to apologize again, but then I remembered that he wanted me to keep quiet, so I quickly closed it again. He thankfully wasn’t paying attention to me. Instead his eyes were focused on someone or something off in the distance.

By looking at the smile that was spreading across his face, I would have to say that it was a person who had captured his attention. My best guess was that that person… err… goddess was Persephone.

Even though I tried not to move, I couldn’t help but to try to look through the small break between two of the bushes in an attempt to get a glimpse at her. I had only ever been in the same room as Artemis, although it was from a very far distance, and she was the most breathtakingly beautiful being I had ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on. Simi called her the ‘Heifer Goddess’ whenever Acheron wasn’t within hearing range, so I assumed that meant that she wasn’t really the most beautiful goddess on Olympus. Kat had always been quick to contradict Simi, saying all of the goddesses were stunningly beautiful in their own special way, but Artemis was her mother and Persephone was her best friend, so I always wanted to have a chance to judge for myself.

I couldn’t see her at all, but I could hear her humming. His smile actually brightened while he watched her move through the large garden. Everyone knew theirs was one of the most epic love stories of all time. But hearing about it and seeing it were two completely different things. I thought that my parents’ relationship mirrored the love Persephone and Hades shared, but now I knew EVERYTHING I could think of paled in comparison. I would consider myself beyond blessed if anyone ever looked at me with even half as much love in their eyes as I saw in Hades’ gaze right now.

He remained stationary and I could only assume it was because she was walking towards us. Her humming was getting louder which is why I had made that assumption.

 “Hades? Snuggle Bunny? What are you doing here?” I heard an angelic voice call out.

“Hello, my Heart, I’ve come to bring you a present.”

“Hades, my Love, as sweet as the gesture is, can’t it wait until I return home in a couple of months? My mother will… well, she’ll call my dad an you’re on his turf here, so you know it won’t be pretty. Please… for me…. Go. Go now and I’ll sneak home later today to have a quick visit with you, I promise.”

Hades’ eyes widened and before I knew it, I was on my feet being pinned against his chest. Had I not been completely petrified, I would have noticed just how right Kat had been. Her best friend had blond, flowing hair that looked like it was made out of pure gold in the sunlight that framed a face with green eyes that were the color of grass on a pristine mountainside. She was holding the stems of a bouquet of flowers and my eyes automatically focused on that. It seemed really odd to me that all of the petals on the flowers were missing. It actually looked like someone had pulled the petals out of each of the flowers because there were bits of them still attached to their centers. Again, I would have found it funny, her being a goddess of the Underworld and the wife of the god of Death holding mutilated flowers, but the terror of my situation squashed any humor I normally would have found with the picture she presented.

“Umm… Sweetie? Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t need a girl…” Her eyes went wide and she threw the dead flowers at us shouting, “GROSS! Is this your way of saying that you want to add some ‘spice’ to our bedroom? Forget my mother! I’m going to get my dad to shove a thunder bolt up your ass!”

“What?! No! NO! Baby! Baby, no!” Hades called out until Persephone turned back around to glare at him. “Baby, she can free you once and for all.”

Her icy glare morphed into one of pure confusion at that response. “Free me? How…? How can SHE do such a thing?”

Alright, the sneer that accompanied the heart attack inducing glare that she turned to my direction wasn’t all that much fun to have happen right now. Seriously, I would do anything to extinguish the fire burning in her eyes. ANYTHING. Yeah, that mean I was even ready to let Hades kill me just so I wouldn’t have to see her hate-filled gaze laser focused on me anymore.

“Let me show you,” he replied almost gleefully.

Persephone cracked a smile then and I really wished I could see her husband’s face. I mean, how had his facial expression changed to cause a shift on her face?

But I was still pinned to his chest, so I couldn’t. After he spoke, his hold on me shifted. Now his left hand was wrapped uncomfortably tight around the front of my neck. I could still breathe, but it wouldn’t take much for that to change, not in my favor. I tried to swallow back my fear, but his tight grasp wouldn’t allow my throat to complete that action at all.

“Hades? Honey? Snuggle Bunny… What are you doing?”

There was some genuine fear and confusion in her tone that made me really wish that I could see Hades’ free hand.

“If she dies, you’ll be free, Baby. I promise you.”

That’s the moment when I saw the sunlight reflect off something metallic… in Hades’ hand. Subsequently, that was also close to the moment when I felt something sharp press against the skin on my throat, just under my chin. That was also when all rational thought vacated my mind and I started to make my futile attempts to struggle out of the god’s ironclad hold. Somehow, I managed not to get cut by the blade he was holding, but my struggling did stop when his large hand squeezed against my throat to cut off my air supply.

Forget stabbing me, at this rate he would have choked the life out of me in no time if he didn’t let up.

“My Love, I know our situation isn’t ideal, but no one need to die to make it work. We can… WAIT!”

I watched as she carefully approached the flower laden shrubs that acted like a fence between the three of us. Once she was nearly within arms’ reach, her demeanor changed completely. Thankfully, at least for my sake, her fiery green gaze was focused solely on Hades’ and not on me at all anymore.

“Just you wait a second! Who in my father’s name are you and why have you brought this beautiful young lady up to Olympus to kill her in front of me?”

“I… I… I already told you…” His speech became a slight bit more self-assured as he spoke, but he still wasn’t speaking with the same cocky tone he had been using previously. “If we sacrifice her then you WILL be free. Free from all of the insanity that you’ve been calling a life for so many centuries that I’ve lost count.”

“And how do you know that her death is going to accomplish that?”

“I’m the god of death, so I know what her death will mean.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head retorting angrily, “Bullshit!”

“Excuse me?” He questioned in a hurt, surprised tone.

I gasped in a breath because her outburst had astonished him so much that his grip had finally slackened. I could have kissed her simply for doing that. Well, I would have if I still didn’t have one large hand still pressed against the front of my throat while the other still had a knife blade pressed against the skin above its twin’s menacing grip.

“You heard me. I call BULLSHIT. You are NOT my husband. So? Who ARE you?”

“Persephone… my heart… You can curse all you want, but…”

“HADES! MY ONE TRUE SNUGGLE BUNNY! I SUMMONED YOU TO HUMAN FORM… **NOW**!” She shouted so loudly that it silenced the rest of my captor’s words.

Just as soon as she finished her last word, a man appeared at her side. He was the exact duplicate of the man standing behind me from the black curly hair that cascaded to his upper back and his biker attire of ripped black jeans and black leather jacket.

Yes, they were almost the complete carbon copy of each other… Sort of like Acheron and Styxx. But, just like my boss and his twin brother, there was one glaring difference: their eyes. When the mand behind me had gotten angry, his eyes had turned into an ice blue fire. But the mand who had arrived here just a second ago had a fire in his eyes that looked more like molten gold.

 _What the fuck?_ I thought as I once again tried to go back to being as stationary as possible so that I wouldn’t accidently get cut or strangled.

“Who dares to summon me?” The new comer started in a deep, nearly demonic voice as he turned to face the woman who was guilty of doing just that. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could tell that his whole demeanor had changed just by the way the tension seeped out of his shoulders at seeing her. “Seph?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug shouting, “Hades! There you FINALLY are!”

“Seph… My heart and soul…” he started cautiously as he gently extracted himself from her tight hold. “Why have you summoned me here to Olympus? You know the deal I made with Dipshit…”

“Hades!” She growled out.

“Sorry… Sorry… I’ll be good. But you know I’m not supposed to be up here, so why did you summon me here?”

“Because of him.”

“Who? Your Dip…?”

The god was interrupted by his clone behind me loudly clearing his throat to gain their attention.

Much like the stories I had heard about the tow of them said, Hades (the REAL Hades apparently) only had eyes for his wife. Persephone actually had to take his chin into her hand and physically turned his face towards me and whomever was standing behind me.

His eyes widened when he saw his impersonator and Persephone seemed to have regained all of her previous confidence.

“SEE? Everyone always gets that one detail wrong.” She let go of Hades’ chin and fully turned her attention back to us. “They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I don’t know if that’s true, but I DO know that my husband’s eyes aren’t blue, they’re amber… just like the…”

“She’s right! So, who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you wearing my face?” Hades interrupted over her speech as he took a step towards us.

I once again felt my windpipe being crushed as the knife blade finally started to pierce through my skin.

“I’m the god of the Underworld,” the man behind me replied with much less conviction than he obviously wanted to convey.

“No! You aren’t!” Hades stated sharply as he placed his hands on two of the bushes in front of him.

They immediately turned brown as the flowers wilted and their petal s fell to the ground. As soon as it became apparent that the bushes in front of us were dead, the hand around my throat convulsed and tightened to an alarming degree.

Persephone must have noticed that minute change because she immediately yanked Hades’ left hand off the bush saying, “Please, please don’t hurt her. She has noting to do with all of this. Just tell me what you want so that you’ll let her go, unharmed, and it’s yours.”

“Seph…”

“Shh… Hades, I know what I’m doing. Please, just shush and trust me.”

I then felt the body behind me shift. I don’t just mean positions on their feet. It felt like they were actually morphing form one form to another, but they managed to maintain their death grip on the front of my throat the whole time.

“What I want…” A sinister voice replied. “Is for her to be dead and you to be rid of him.”

“NO!” Persephone screamed as she watched them raise the knife high over their head. “NO! Don’t hurt my daughter!”


	15. Chapter 14

“NO!” Persephone screamed as she watched my captor raise her knife over her head. “No! Please, don’t hurt my daughter. Please, mother! Don’t do it!”

“No!” Demeter shrieked with the extremely large knife still raised over her head. “If she dies, so does your ties to him.”

“MOTHER! No, it won’t! If you send her to the Underworld,” Persephone’s gaze dropped to lock with mine as she continued. “If you do that… then I will have absolutely no reason to my home with Hades ever again.”

Demeter let out a blood curdling screech before she screamed, “This is your home! Olympus is your home!”

Persephone held up her hands in surrender and took a large step to her left, away from Hades’ side.

“You’re right… This is my home. I’m sorry, I misspoke. But can you please let her go and then we can go to your favorite place in your garden so we can talk about this?”

“You mean that?” Demeter let me drop to the ground like someone would dump a sack of potatoes after a long shopping trip. I was too relieved to be able to breath to do anything but just that, so I completely missed the goddess’ demeanor shift from reasonable to completely psychotic once again. Just as soon as I hit the ground, Demeter snatched a huge handful of my hair in her hand to pull me up to my knees with it as she said, “No, this is just a trick. You don’t actually mean it.”

“Yes, I do,” Persephone called out desperately. “Plus, if you hurt her, it isn’t just the two of us that you’ll have to answer to.”

Demeter must have given Persephone a questioning look because the younger goddess continued saying, “She’s a Squire.”

“A what?” Her mother questioned as she once again released me from her grip.

“A Squire. It means that she has pledged herself to Artemis’ service on Earth.”

“Oh. I don’t know anything about all of that.”

“I know you don’t, but that’s the not the important part, Mother. You see… because she pledged her service to Artemis, it also means that she works for Acheron. He promised her that he would get to the bottom of what happened with her Mom and you know what happens if he breaks a promise.”

I swear I saw Demeter shudder in her spot before she squared her shoulders and tried to sound more confident than she was when she replied, “That has nothing to do with her. He could still keep his promise even if she isn’t around to hear it.”

“That may be true, but he definitely won’t be happy about a friend of his dying at the hands of a goddess.”

Persephone cautiously made her way to Demeter’s side while they spoke. I couldn’t take my eyes off the goddess as she moved closer to both of us. Her words kept echoing in my mind, “Don’t hurt my daughter” and I really wanted to question her about that. Because if she was my mother, then did that mean my father was…

I jumped and completely lost my train of thought when I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. I slowly turned my head to meet a pair of unearthly amber eyes.

“While Seph has her distracted, let get you out of here,” Hades whispered as he offered me his hand.

I nodded and reached out to him, but I was quickly snatched up by my hair again before I could touch him.

“Don’t you dare touch her! Isn’t it bad enough that you have defiled my daughter?” Demeter shrieked into my ear.

“Mother…”

“What do you care? Weren’t you going to murder her just a second ago?” Hades spat out angrily. “Why would you care if I ‘defile’ her if you just want her dead?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“Not that hit would make much sense anyways.”

“Hades!”

“What?” He questioned as he turned his eyes towards his wife. “Tell me that isn’t true, Seph.”

“I know, but…”

“PERSEPHONE!”

The poor goddess of the Underworld looked like she was being physically pulled between her mother and her husband. I didn’t envy her or her efforts to try to play peacemaker with the other two gods. I don’t think such a feat would be possible and yet Persephone looked like she was going to try to accomplish the impossible.

Thankfully, Demeter had once again forgotten about me while she argued with her daughter and son in law. I seized the opportunity to try to get away from her and crawled as fast as I could in the direction opposite to where she was standing. I, of course, wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, which was the reason why I ran head first into Hades’ shins.

This time when our eyes met, I moved to try to get away from him. During their argument, his eyes had turned into molten gold and fire. When he had first arrived, his eyes had looked interesting and exotic, but up close right now, they were beyond terrifying.

“Hey…” he started as I crab-walked away from him.

He reached out to me and I swear I saw an image of myself drowning in a river of fire when I looked into his eyes. That cause me to let out a blood curdling scream as I redoubled my efforts to scramble way from him.

I guess the bickering between Persephone and Demeter had continued during my attempt to escape because suddenly the garden went deathly quiet.

“Seph? You called?” A newcomer’s voice questioned. Before Persephone could reply, I heard a familiar voice exclaim, “CORA! Is that really you?!” She materialized by my side and she pulled up into her arms for an uncomfortably tight hug. “All of us have been worried sick about you!”

“Kat?” I questioned, feeling quite dazed.

“Yeah, Sweetie, it’s me.”

“OH, THANK THE GODS!”

I hugged her fiercely and that’s when I felt the first tears fall from my eyes. Had she not been holding onto me, I probably would have collapsed to the ground again.

“Shh… it’s okay, Cora. You’re safe now. I can’t tell you how relieved everyone will be to hear you’re alive after how long we’ve all be looking for you.”

I leaned back and gave her a questioning look as I said, “But I just left Fin’s house yesterday.”

She wiped away some of the moisture from my tear stained eyes, “No, Sweetie. You disappeared from the airport over a week ago.”

“A week? But…? How?”

“Time moves differently here on Olympus,” Persephone called out from somewhere behind me.

I must have made a face because Kat laughed and said, “She’s right. Days, hours, months… they pass at a different pace here.”

“Oh gods, my mom must be having a nervous breakdown,” I commented as my tears started to fall with a renewed vigor.

Kat brushed the tears off my cheeks with her thumbs. “Trust me, she isn’t the only one.” She laughed at the wide-eyed look I gave her and hugged me into her chest so that she could whisper in my ear, “Why don’t we get you home to the man you love?”

I felt myself go stiff in her arms, but before I could formulate a reply, I heard a deranged voice call out, “You aren’t taking her anywhere! I forbid it!”

“Mother, please,” Persephone pleaded. “Please, let Kat take her home. I swear I’ll stay here to talk to you about everything. Just let her leave, please?”

“No. You’ll stay here anyways because it isn’t his turn to have you yet. So, she stays here because I say so!”

Persephone looked like she was going to mount a new protest, so Kat held her hand out and said, “Don’t worry Seph, I’ve got this.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth before we heard a frantic voice calling out, “Kat? Kat? What happened? Are you okay?!”

Kat released me from her tight embrace, but she continued to hold my hand in hers. “I’m fine, Dad. But I could really use your help with…”

She pulled me forward and Ash gasped in a breath, “Cora!”

“Exactly. I need your help getting her home.”

Ash still looked stunned as he questioned, “Of course. What exactly do you need help with?”

“Actually… it’s my mom that’s the issue,” Persephone answered from where she was now standing tucked under Hades’ arm and into his side.

“What has Demeter done now?” Ash asked in an exasperated voice.

“I’m sorry Ash, She’s the one who kidnapped Cora. I can hazard a guess why, but mom…” Persephone stepped away from Hades to get a better look at the spot where Demeter had been standing. When she confirmed that he mother really was gone, she turned her eyes to her best friend and asked, “How did you…?”

“No one can scare a god from Olympus like my dad,” Kat replied, smiling proudly.

My eyes darted between the four people standing in front of me before they focused on Acheron’s face. “Does this mean I can really go home?”

“Yes, Cora-Lee, yes it does,” he answered with a soft smile.

I ran into his arms and found myself sobbing into his chest again. Kat gently patted my back before she moved over to Persephone’s side to say her goodbyes.

“Thanks for your help Acheron, if you want, we could…” Persephone started hesitantly.

“No,” I interrupted with pure terror in my tone. “No, Ash. Please, please be the one to take me home. I don’t feel safe going with anyone but you. Please?”

“Shh… it’s alright Cora. I’m more than happy to take you.” He then looked over o the only other remaining people to apologetically say, “I’m sorry, but…”

“Don’t apologize, Ash,” Persephone cut in. She stared at the back of my head, but her words were solely meant for him. “You’ve always kept her safe. Please make sure you get her back to her… her… her mother safely.”

He gave Persephone an anguished look when he heard tears over-taking her voice. He moved to offer her some sort of comfort, but Hades was quick to wave him off.

“I’ll take care of my wife. Please just make sure to keep her daughter safe.”

Ash nodded then solemnly replied, “I promise I will. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

I had closed my eyes to try to calm myself down before I felt a weird wind rush over me. Ash then squeezed my hand and quietly said into my ear, “Welcome home. After everything has settle down a bit, we can discuss what happened.”

My eyes drifted open after he was finished speaking. A quiet sob escaped my lips when I saw my mom sitting in the chair on the second floor of our townhouse that was beside the window overlooking the street. She was hugging my baby book into her chest and had her eyes closed as if she was praying. I didn’t have to use any of my psychic abilities to figure out what she might be praying for because it was the same thing I had silently been praying for ever since I woke up in the room that Demeter wanted me to believe was Hades’ throne room in the Underworld.

“ _Maman_?”

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of my tentative question. “ _Mon bijoux?_ ”

I sprinted to her side and then fell to my knees as soon as I was beside her. Once my head was resting in her lap I answered, “ _Oui, Maman, c’est moi_.”

“How…? Where…? How…?” She quickly shook her head then said, “No, all of that can wait. All I want right now if for you to get up here and give me a hug.”

“That I will happily do.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Acheron disappeared with the unknown young woman, Hades moved Persephone out of his embrace and held her at arm’s length. She kept her chin tilted down, so he gently lifted it up to force her to make eye contact with him.

“Seph? You know I have to ask…”

“I know you do, my Boo-Boo Bear. And yes, you heard me right, she is my daughter.”

“YOUR daughter,” he repeated in a tone she didn’t recognize.

“Yes, my… Oh! NO!” She nearly shouted as she wrapped him in a tight hug. “Oh, my Snuggle Bunny, I didn’t mean it like that. She is OUR daughter.” She leaned back and slapped his chest. “Plus, do you really think I would ever be in the position for anyone but you to be her father?”

“You better not,” he replied in a calm tone as his irises turned into golden fire again.

“Well, I haven’t and I never will be. Especially since I only ever want to be with you.”

“Good to hear. But how? I mean… Why did you hide her from me?”

Persephone led him by the had to a bench beside one of the many fountains in her mother’s garden.

“When I had my suspicions that I was with child, I went to Artemis to help me. Don’t give me that look, she isn’t… well at least not all the time. Anyways, she helped me conceal my pregnancy and recruited Acheron to help hide her after I gave birth. He’s been kind enough to give me updates when I’ve been visiting with Kat, but he never gave me any specifics about where she was or who raised her. I’ve never even heard her name until today.”

“But why Seph? Why did you hide her from ME?”

Persephone sniffled in a breath that quickly turned into a sob. “I was scared. I thought maybe you wouldn’t want a child.”

“Not want a child? How could I not want a little mini-you walking around?”

Although she hated to admit it, that answer took her slightly by surprise. She hoped that her face didn’t portray her true feelings as she said, “But the biggest reason is that I worried my mother would do something… well… something exactly like this. I didn’t want her to use our daughter to try to manipulate me or to try to hurt you.”

“Now that I can understand. But I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that anymore.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope. Didn’t you see the look on her face when Acheron showed up here? I have to remember to ask him to show me how he did that.”

 


	16. Chapter 15

I woke up to the sound of muffled voices and sat up straight. For a brief moment I had forgotten where I was, so it took me a couple of seconds to calm myself down enough for me to realize I was in my bed in my room in my childhood home. It had been nearly a week since Acheron had brought me back here, but every time I woke up, I was expecting not to be at home anymore.

Once I was able to calm myself down, I was able to focus. To be more precise, I was able to concentrate so that I could hear what was being said downstairs.

“I know Eve. I just wanted to check in with you about how she’s doing today.”

“You really are a great friend, Fin. She’s still having a lot of terrible nightmares and only sleeps for an hour or two at a time. She won’t admit it, but I think she’s expecting to wake up in the horrible place again if she sleeps for too long.”

They either went silent or started to speak too quietly for me to overhear it. I’m more than certain that their conversation was paused while Fine tried to comfort my mom because I’m pretty sure I hear some tears creeping into her tone when she finished her last statement. No matter how worried he might be about me, he isn’t one that could ignore someone who was in distress, especially if she was standing right in front of him.

“I just wish there was something else I could do to help.”

The pure anguish I heard in Fin’s voice completely broke my heart. I didn’t mean to hurt him… or anyone else for that matter, but I was still trying to process everything after I had learned that Persephone and Hades were my biological parents. Before he left, I managed to convince Acheron to confirm the validity of that information before he left our townhouse. No all I could think was, how in the name of Zeus was I supposed to tell my mom and dad about all of that?

“I know it doesn’t feel like much, but you checking in on her everyday is a huge help to me. And I think it is for her too. After she spoke to you on the phone last night, she actually came down from her rom to have dinner with me, so… well that’s some progress.”

“I can’t say that I’m inclined to argue with you about that, Eve. But…”

“You know what?” Mom interrupted him in an overly optimistic tone. “I’ve just had a thought. Wait here.”

I flopped back on my mattress with the full intention of trying to get more sleep when I heard my door open.

“Cora…? Sweetheart? Are you awake?” My mom called out from the crack in the door with a hushed yell.

She hadn’t opened the door wide enough to shed much light into my pitch-black room, so I could have pretended I was still asleep if I wanted to. But I didn’t like lying to her, so I quietly replied, “Yeah, I’m awake. What’s up?”

She took that as an invitation to come into my room and turned on the overhead light. “Fin’s stopped by again, so I thought that if you were awake that you might be up for a visit with him.”

“Well… I’m awake, but I can’t say that I’m dressed to be seen by anyone other than you.”

Even though I was still trying to recover from the temporary blindness that the brightness of the overhead lights had caused, I could still make out the unimpressed look I had put on her face.

“Not dressed? _Mon bijoux_ , you in your cute little PJ’s, it isn’t like you’re sleeping in the buff like you usually do or anything.” She laughed while I gaped at her. She then stepped in front of me and gently forced my mouth closed with the tips of her fingers. “I’ve known you longer than anyone else, so I know your habit, _mon bijoux_. So…? Are you coming down or…?”

“Give me a couple of minutes to freshen up. You know, put on a sweatshirt over my PJs at least? Then… Can you please ask Fin to come up here?”

Her eyebrows raised up in surprise, but her tone remained even as she said, “You want him to come up here? Alright… okay… I’ll be sure to take my time going down the stairs to give you the time you need.”

“Mom?” I called out as she reached for the door knob to open it and leave. “I… I owe him an apology and I… I thought it would be better if it was done in private. I… I didn’t…”

“Shh… You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Sweetness. I just expected you to ask me to send him away, so I’m overjoyed that you’re will to receive one of your friends finally.”

“Well… you always say that I keep you young by keeping you on your toes.”

“That you do, _mon bijoux_ , that you do.”

She then blew me a kiss and slipped out the door. I jumped off my bed and ran to my closet and snatched up a black dress with a bright green accent under the corset style top off a hanger. I knew I didn’t have enough time to change and do full hair and makeup, so I picked a dress for which I didn’t have to try proper underwear to wear under it. I knew it was a risky move, but I really wanted to look nice fore Fin when I had this conversation with him.

After I pulled the dress on, I moved over to my vanity. I quickly covered my face with power foundation and then traced the uppers lids of both my eyes with black eyeliner and slapped on some mascara as well. My hand instinctively reached out for my favorite bright red lipstick, but I immediately let go of that tube to pick up a more neutral pearled beige color.

_No… put on the other one. You won’t be doing anything to mess it up. Finish the outfit… put on the red._

I was still having a silent argument with myself when I heard a tentative knock on my bedroom door. Knowing who was on the other side of the door caused my heart rate to start to speed up. I quickly grabbed a pail pink sparkly lip gloss and put it on before I called out, “Come in!”

“Welcome ho…” Fin’s eyes went wide once they landed on where I was standing.

I almost laughed while I watched him rapidly close the door, but I forced myself not to give into that urge. I really didn’t want to ruin the moment. Even if I knew that it couldn’t lead anywhere.

Fin remained silent as he made sure the door was secured and turned back towards me. IF I didn’t know him as well as I did, I probably would have been afraid of the look that he as now wearing.

But I did know him, better than most anyone, so I knew that quacking of my already rapid heartbeat was in anticipation of what that heated look could promise. It had nothing to do about fear.

He crossed the room in two long strides and smothered my lips with his own, without making a single sound. I was so surprised by his forwardness that I didn’t move at. Not eve my lips to reciprocate his embrace.

Not that he allowed that to deter him in any way. He continued to kiss me aggressively as he pulled me into his body. While he hugged me and pressed me into his chest, he lifted me up and sat me on my dresser. My brain had finally caught up with what Fin was doing and I finally started to kiss him back. I swear I heard him growl into my mouth when I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs encircled themselves around his waist.

“I’m… I’m sorry,” he whispered as he pulled back to rest his forehead against mine. “I… I don’t know what came over me.”

He tried to back away from me, but I tighten my hold with my leg around his waist to keep him where he was.

“Don’t apologize. I’ve been wanting to so that since I left your place.”

He cocked an inquisitive brow as he asked with an audible tease in his tone, “Is that why you put this on for me?”

His right hand moved up my left leg, pushing the skirt of my dress up as his hand traveled up to my hip. An involuntary shudder ran up my spine when I felt the tips of his fingers trace a line back down my leg along the skin of my now bare leg.

“What?” I countered in a breathy voice. “This old thing?”

He huffed out a laugh and shook his head. He then moved his face back so that we could try to focus on each other’s face. It broke my heart to see the sadness in his eyes when our eyes finally locked. But in a strange way it also made my heart swell because I was sure that raw emotion meant that his feelings were the same as mine and that what we had said to each other before I went missing was completely honest and real.

“Did they hurt you?”

I shook my head answering, “Only a little cut, but it’s already healed.

“Where?”

I slowly moved my hand to point at the spot on my neck. He every gently traced a line across the front of my neck below where the actual cut had been.

“Why did they hurt you?”

Tears welled up in my eyes, so I quickly slammed them shut. That caused a few teardrops to fall as a sob bubbled up around the lump in my throat. I knew I wouldn’t be able to speak without a mournful sob escaping with my words, but I did manage to shake my head.

See my distress caused him to scoop me up in a hug and then he whispered, “Shh… we don’t have to talk about that just yet. You’re home… you’re whole… you’re safe, that’s all that matters.”

I sniffled in a breath and somehow managed to squeak out, “Thanks, Fin.”

He then just held me almost uncomfortably tight and we both fell completely silent for I don’t know how long. I just reveled in how good it felt to be home and to be held in Fin’s arms that I let myself forget about everything else. I finally felt safe and soon enough I felt myself starting to drift off to sleep.

I didn’t feel Fin carry me to my bed, but I did notice him start to get up and move off the bed to leave. My hand moved out to grab his forearm, but I didn’t open my eyes as I quietly pleaded, “Don’t go. Stay a little longer, please?”

“Alright,” he agreed immediately. He eased himself back onto my bed, but he remained seated with his back on my headboard instead of laying down and holding me in his arms again. I rolled over immediately to use his thigh as my pillow when I didn’t feel him move any closer. He started to stroke my hair softly as he quietly said, “I’ll stay until you fall back asleep, _ma petite amie._ ”

I wanted to thank him, but I had already started to slip into Morpheus’ realm, so it remained only as a thought and never became a statement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fin continued to stroke Cora’s hair even after he felt her breath start to even out into a deep sleep. He silently cursed himself for giving into his impulses and allowing what happened in this room and his lack of self-control. He had a lot that he wanted to tell her and so many things that they needed to discuss since she had gone missing.

The number one thing he needed to tell her was that their secret had gotten out and it was all his fault. He hadn’t been able to mask his feelings as well as he thought that he had been able to do before she disappeared. But then again, maybe he had never been as successful as he had assumed he could be.

It all came to a head one night while he was patrolling in the French Quarter. He had been following three Daimons hoping to corner them in an alley and kill them with ease. He thought his streak of good luck had ended because since the night Cora kissed him and disappeared, he hadn’t gotten a single kill. Since that night, all of the Daimons he found always stayed in crowded areas, stuck to their own kind and never seemed to be actively feeding on the innocent.

But then, that fateful night, things seemed to change in his favor. He could now tell that he was following two Daimons and a human woman. The two males guided her into an alleyway and Fin couldn’t have been more elated. As he stealthily followed their path, he heard a familiar melody start to drift out from a nearby restaurant and fill the air. Although he felt his lips pull back into a warm smile, Fin managed to stay on task. After he had dusted these to blond bastards, he planned on seeking out Acheron to try to get some answers about Cora and what had been revealed about her possible whereabouts.

He took a step with a renewed sense of purpose, but he never made it into the alley. Instead he was knocked to the ground when a two by four hit him in the stomach. That blow was immediately followed up by another heavy piece of lumber landed hard against his upper back.

“I told you we were being followed,” the women commented as one of the Daimons kicked him in the gut.

If he hadn’t been trying to fight off blow after blow, Fin would have given the woman an incredulous look. He was here to save HER life and this what the thanks he got? If that was all he ever heard, then he could completely understand why some of his brother’s went so insane and crazy.

He tried his best to regain his bearings and footing to mount an attempt to fight back, but the hits kept coming to fast and to furious for him to accomplish that.

What Fin didn’t know was that Katra had been out for dinner with her husband, Sin, that night too. She had noticed Fin following the two Daimons and had wanted to follow him to help The Dark Hunter. Her husband had stopped her and reminded her that Fin wasn’t just a seasoned fighter, he was an ancient warrior. That meant that he wouldn’t appreciate her stepping into bag one of his kills without him requesting her aide.

Even though she wasn’t happy… okay that’s putting it mildly… Kat conceded to his logic. That was up until she heard more grunting than would be normal for a fight where a Dark Hunter was dusting two Daimons.

She quickly turned and ran towards the sounds of the fighting. It only took a second for her to notice that Fin wasn’t one of the males who was standing upright at the moment. Unfortunately, it took her a little longer than a second to reduce the two blonds into their own little piles of dust. She was just barely to stop herself before her stiletto knife sliced through the human’s chest.

Kat made painfully hard eye contact with the woman that she had just saved as she growled out, “They can’t make you immortal. Go home before you get your stupid ass killed.”

The pretty blond nodded a little quickly with wide, wild eyes. Before she could give herself a moment to think, she turned and sprinted out of the alley without a single look back.

Fin was now on his feet and looked very sheepish as he said, “Thank you for your assistance, Katra.”

“Happy to help. But how in the name of…? How did they get the drop on you? You’re one of the best fighters I know, there’s no way they should have been able to overpower you.”

“Thank you for the compliment. I… I’m not sure what… or why my attention was… so… divided.”

“Kind of like it is now?” Sin asked with an audible chuckle.

Kat opened her ears and caught the tail end of Savage Garden’s “To the Moon and Back”. She turned her now wide, surprised eyes to the Dark Hunter and quietly asked, “You and Cora? I… I had no idea.”

“What? No… NO! Cora and I are just friends. She’s very serious about being Squire and I would never do anything to jeopardize that.”

“Fin… Fin, don’t look so terrified. Dad’s eased up a bit on his rules, especially if it’s true love. And if it is, I have a bit of an ‘in’ with a certain goddess who knows a thing or two about having your soul returned. I swear I’m more than happy to help if you need… want me to.”

Fin smiled down at Cora as she continued to sleep soundly. He was trying to will himself to leave the room, force himself to get off her bed, but that was more than a bit of a struggle for him. But he had to leave, he had to patrol, he had to carry on like nothing had changed between him and the vision of beauty who laid before him.

With that last thought in mind, he leaned down and kissed her forehead and somehow got his legs to move to stand up. He allowed himself another lingering look before he made a concentrated effort to get his feet moving and leave the room. All he had to do now was say his goodbyes to Eve and hen he would be able to continue with his night as normally as possible.

As he slowly made his way down the stairs, he heard a knock at the front door. He couldn’t help but to smile because visitors would make his escape so much easier.

Eve hesitated at the door when she saw Fin approaching the bottom of the stairs. He nodded to the front entrance and said, “Please don’t delay inviting in your guests on my account.”

Eve simply smiled before she finished her approach and opened the door. She wasn’t expecting any visitors, but there seemed to be someone new on her front step every night, stopping by to check n Cora’s well-being, so a knock at the door had become her new norm of late. She put a bright smile on her face in expectation of seeing someone from their extended family on the other side of the door. But, the sight of two complete strangers put a huge damper on her mood and caused the jovial expression to fade quickly.

“I’m sorry… Can I help you?”

Before either of the people on the doorstep could answer her, Eve heard Fin gasp in a painful breath. She turned to check on him, but he was no longer behind her. Or rather, he was no longer standing behind her.

“FIN!” She cried out louder than she meant to when she noticed that he was now doubled over, falling to his knees behind her.

 


	17. Chapter 16

It was long after I heard Fin exit my room that I woke up again. Thankfully it was the first time that my waking hadn’t been because of a nightmare, which gave me an idea that I wanted to run past my mom.

I quickly changed into one of my favorite exercise outfits in the hopes that I would have enough energy for a run before I tried to talk with my mom. I figured it might be beneficial to do that first to clear my head before I broached this subject with her tonight.

I was slowly brushing my hair back into a high ponytail when I heard my mom shriek out, “FIN!”

Forget about my waning energy levels, the sound of mom’s panicked voice got my feet moving… FAST.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fin reached up from where he was kneeling and quietly said, “Eve, one is expected to bow when in the presence of our gods.”

“Our… our gods?” She questioned in a daze.

“Yes. She is the EXACT incarnation of the idols I grew up taking offerings to of our goddess of the Underworld. I can only assume that beside her is the god of death since no one has been permitted to capture his image in any medium.”

Eve’s eyes went wide as she listened to Fin, but it was more because of the woman at whom she was now openly staring. There was no mistaking the resemblance the goddess bore to her daughter. She had never questioned Acheron about the maternity or paternity of the babe he had placed in her arms over twenty-five years ago and now she understood why he had never made any attempts to volunteer that information.

Since she had been rendered mute and frozen in her place, Fin gently guided Eve down to kneel beside him.

 By the time I made it to the top of the stairs, both Fin and my mom were down on their knees. Persephone was stepping inside our townhouse with her right hand extended towards them…

“NO! Oh, gods no! Please! Please don’t hurt them!” I screamed as I nearly fell down the stairs in my haste. “Please! I’ll do whatever you want!! ANYTHING! Just don’t hurt them! PLEASE!”

Hades quickly stepped inside as he pulled his now distraught wife into his side and closed the front door at the same time. I fell to my knees in front of my mom and Fin as I frantically asked, “MOM? FIN? Can you hear me? Are you hurt? What did they do to you?”

“NOTHING!” A deep, angry voice answered from somewhere behind me. “We have done NOTHING to them! They are merely…”

“HADES! Calm down,” Persephone interrupted. “They are unharmed. They were simply bowing in tribute to us. I’m sorry if we scared you.”

“DON’T apologize to her! We’ve done NOTHING wrong.”

“Hades… please. I…”

I only had eyes for the woman who raised me and asked, “Mom? Please, _Maman_ , answer me. Are you okay?”

She looked completely dazed when she finally tilted her chin up to look at me. Or rather through me. Fin reached over and touched my arm to get my attention when I didn’t take my eyes off my mom while I was pleading with her.

“As the goddess explained, we are both uninjured. The first time a human is in a god’s or goddesses’ presence can be quite overwhelming. I believe that is what has happened to Eve tonight.”

“Honestly, we meant no harm,” Persephone offered in a truly apologetic tone.

I stood up and turned around to glare at her and her husband as I angrily spat out, “Then why ARE you here?”

Hades had moved Persephone so that she was standing behind him and completely blocked my view of her. Who knew that I could look so scary that the god of the Underworld would feel like he had to protect his wife from me?

“You would do well to watch your tone with my wife, young lady,” Hades replied as his irises started to morph into golden flames.

“You can’t tell me what to do, you aren’t my…” I threw my hand over my mouth and just stared at the god in abject horror.

By this time, my mom had recovered from her previous… whatever happened to her. She now looked at the newcomers and smiled brightly as she called out, “Welcome to our home. Why don’t you both come in and have a seat? I was making tea. Would either of you like a cup?”

Persephone stepped out from behind her husband as she almost timidly replied, “This was a really bad idea. I think that we should just go.”

Hades looked down at his wife saying, “Seph… You cannot be serious.”

Before she could reply, I jumped in, “No, my mom is right. Please… come in. I’m sorry that I was so rude before, I… I haven’t been sleeping well, so… Please, please stay.”

Persephone gave me a look that absolutely broke my heart, but she He tried to cover it up with a nod and then followed my mom into our salon. Hades stayed close to his wife’s side and once again only had eyes for her.

Fin carefully made his way to my side and quietly asked, “Did you want me to stay? I can have Cody do patrols for me.”

I stared at him because I didn’t know what to say. YES, of course I wanted him to stay. But no one could know I had feelings for him, so it would be beyond inappropriate for me to ask him to remain by my side to comfort me… Especially now.

“Cora? Are you okay?” He questioned in a quiet voice so that he could try to mask his concern.

That was the moment when I noticed that I was shaking uncontrollably. He took me into his arms and ran his hands up and down my back as if he was trying to warm me up.

I rested my cheek against his chest and finally found my voice to reply just over a whisper, “Even though I really want you to stay, I don’t think it would be the best idea.”

“I understand.”

He held me for a couple more seconds before I eased myself out of his embrace. Once I was able to see his face, I added, “Fin? They’re… Uhh… Persephone and Hades that is… they’re… my… my… biological parents.”

“They are?” He questioned as his eyes bugged out in surprise.

“Yes. Well… at least that’s the rumor. And if it’s true, then…”

“It’s alright, Cora,” he interrupted. “At least now we know you truly are a goddess and that it isn’t just in my mind’s eye.”

I stared at him for a breath before I felt my cheeks heat up as I said, “Fin…”

“Shh… it’s true. I should head out to complete my patrols… Call me if you need me or… or if you just want to talk later, alright?”

“Alright, I will… and… thanks.”

He quickly pecked my lips before he silently slipped out the front door. I stood in the hallway as his words finally started to properly sink in. Technically, I was a goddess. Now Acheron laughing when he said I wasn’t American made so much more sense. Plus, he had offered to help me with my abilities. Really… he was probably the ONLY being on this planet that would be able to help me with them.

Well other than my biological parents that is.

I let out a heavy sigh and tried to center myself. Thankfully I had stopped shaking so obviously and could now at least pretend that I was calm.

When I finally made my way into the salon, I froze in my place at the door because the only person I saw was Hades. He was seated in my dad’s favorite chair and looked like he was checking out every inch of the room. But as soon as he saw me, his attention became uncomfortably laser focused on me.

“You can come inside… we don’t bite… hard…”

“HADES!” Persephone scolded from somewhere to my left. She then turned her attention to me to say, “Your mom is in the kitchen, so I was looking… at… Are…? Are these all of you?”

I nodded and stepped closer to her replying, “The perils of being an only child… all of the embarrassing baby photos are you and all of the horrible homemade trinkets are your handiwork.”

“I don’t see any horrible homemade trinkets,” she said with a soft smile.

I laughed then countered, “You haven’t seen my dad’s office. He’s kind enough to hide most of them in there.”

“I’m sure they’re beautiful.”

“You are being way too kind.”

“That’s because she IS too kind, especially when people haven’t earned it.”

“Hades! We’re visitors in their home. Be nice!” Persephone scolded as she moved to stand closer to his side.

I raked my eyes over where he was seated and couldn’t help but think that he looked like a King on his throne. Which was probably how he was used to being regarded. And was probably the air he was wanting to put forth right now.

Given that he was the god of Death and the Underworld, I probably should have held my tongue. But there was something about him that just got under my skin and I found it impossible to behave myself.

“Since she married you, it’s pretty obvious she IS too nice for her own good.”

“CORA!” My mom and Persephone called out at the same time.

When I saw my mom in the doorway to the kitchen, I felt a blush spread across my cheeks. She simply shook her head with an unimpressed look on her face and walked past me with a tray of drinks in hand.

“I apologize for my daughter’s rudeness. I swear I raised her better than that.”

Hades chuckled as he took the bottle of beer, she was offering him. “No need to apologize, Mrs. Christianson. She is actually quite amusing in her petulance. Most people are too frightened to speak when they are in my presence, let alone try to be so witty.”

“That may be true, but it doesn’t excuse her for being rude to you, your… uhh… Mister… err…”

“Hades. Please just call me Hades, Mrs. Christianson.”

“Only if you call me Eve.”

He smiled then nodded his head. “Eve it is.”

“And Mrs.…”

“Persephone… or Seph, please,” the goddess interrupted.

“Persephone. Did you want cream or milk or sugar in your tea?”

The goddess moved to take a seat on the couch closest to where her husband was seated replying, “Just a touch of honey if you have it.”

“Of course.”

After my mom had passed Persephone her tea cup, she sat down at the opposite end of the couch. I remained standing by the door as I watched the three of them. My mom was a great hostess, so she appeared to be completely at ease while she got her two guests settled in. Hades had made himself at home in my dad’s chair and looked like he belonged there as he drank from his bottle.

The only person who looked uneasy as I felt was Persephone. Most of the time she kept her eyes on her husband while the rest of the time they darted around the room as if she expected someone or something to jump out of the shadows.

“You have a lovely home,” she finally said to break the deafening silence in the room.

My mom’s cheeks turned pink, but it was so minute that you would only see it if you knew what you were looking for. “I know it isn’t much, especially compared to what you must be used to, but we’re comfortable.”

“No, Eve, I meant it. This is a real home,” Persephone insisted as she made eye contact with me. “You can sense the love that you all have shared over the years. It makes it feel… cozy.”

“Oh… thank you. I’ve always tried to make sure Cora grew up knowing how loved and cherished she is… especially since we have to deal with so much ugliness in our jobs.” Mom turned her attention to me then said, “Cora, why don’t you take a seat by your…? By Hades?” I shook my head causing her to sound more stern when she added, “Cora-Lee, don’t be rude. I made you a cup of chamomile tea. Please sit down and drink it.”

“Thank you, Mom, but I would prefer to remain standing.”

Hades moved his piercing gaze to where I was standing and smirked as he took another drink from his bottle. He obviously had noticed my fear and trepidation at getting close to him even though my mom appeared to be completely oblivious about my feelings.

“Cora-Lee…”

“No, Eve,” Persephone interrupted with her eyes now trained on me. “After what was done to her, I don’t blame her for not wanting to be near us. I honestly don’t believe there are any words in any language that can accurately describe just how sorry I am for what my mother did to you. But I still wanted to come here to try to apologize to you.”

“Thanks, but you didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t have to apologize for other people’s misdeeds,” I replied without moving my eyes off Hades.

She smiled and inclined her head, but my mom didn’t appear to be as accepting of my response. “But we do appreciate the sentiment. For a goddess and a god to go out of their way to offer those words to us is such a blessing.”

Persephone then turned her attention to mom. “You are a remarkable woman, Eve., but that isn’t the only reason we’re here. Now that the truth is out, I…”

“THIS is my home,” I nearly shouted over the rest of her statement. “I don’t want to live anywhere else. And I NEVER want to go back to Olympus EVER.”

“Cora-Lee,” Mom gasped out in surprise.

“No Eve, it’s okay,” Persephone replied as she reached out to gently grasp my mom’s forearm. “She’s more than justified for feeling that way after what my mother did to her. But that isn’t what I wanted to say. I was just hoping, now that we all know the truth, that you might want to get to know us better and that you might let us get to know you.”

“We can have all of our visits in my realm if you’d prefer,” Hades offered with a smug smile.

I all but rolled my eyes when I shot back, “Only if I get to sit on your throne.”

He quickly shot Persephone an incredulous look to which she just shrugged and said, “If you ever wanted proof that she is your daughter, that has YOU written all over it.”

He chuckled then turned back to me and asked, “You’ve seen my throne room?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “It’s where you… err her… uhh…” I swallowed then cleared my throat. “I woke up in a pitch-black room cuffed to your throne. Or at least that’s what Demeter told me when she was wearing your face.”

“Oh. No, you were on Olympus that whole time, so you haven’t seen my real throne.”

“Oh… okay. That makes sense. Once I got to thinking about it, I figured Demeter had make it look like your throne was made of bones to try to scare me.”

“No, she got that part right. I revel in the fear I see in my enemies’ eyes when they first witness what I’ve done to my foes. Tell me, little girl, do you want to add your bones to my pile?”

“Well…” A voice called out from behind me. “Looks like I got here in the nick of time.”

 


End file.
